When It All Falls Apart
by BellaGiornata
Summary: Sam remains ill after failing to complete the trials to close Hell's gate, Metatron forces all the angels from Heaven, and Abaddon is hell-bent on usurping Crowley from his reign over Hell. Just when the Winchesters are facing the worst, they find help from a young hunter who is facing more than her usual hunts. Sam/OC
1. Chapter 1

**Since I can never seem to find a Sam/OC fic lately I thought I'd start one that I don't plan on making very long. I wanted to do something original that doesn't follow so strictly to the episodes like my other one and I really wanted to write something that takes place right after the finale that just aired for this season. I'll be writing quite a bit of this story in my free time but depending if people seem interested is whether I'll keep it up (because I do still have another Sam story I am working on). So let me know if you want me to keep this one going! **

* * *

"Must be some night you're having."

I eyed the bartender as he made my drink behind the counter. He had a conversational tone to his voice and when he caught my raised brow he added on, "It's not often I'm serving shots of whiskey to young ladies so early in the evening."

"Tonight isn't any different from my usual," I said in short.

The man eyed me curiously before setting the shot glass in front of me. I drained the contents easily and set the empty glass back down, holding the bartender's gaze.

"How bout a Jack and Coke on the house?" he asked me as he retrieved the glass.

"Free drinks always improve a night," I replied dryly.

My eyes caught a game of baseball playing on a TV to my right. Transfixed, I watched for awhile waiting for the alcohol to kick in and help me unwind. I was vaguely aware of some college kids entering; they were loud and already drunk, that much was obvious.

"Thanks," I said when the bartender set my new drink down in front of me.

Without another word, he made his way over to the rowdy group college kids and started getting drinks for them.

More people were slowly filing into the bar as time crept on, but I kept to myself, or at least tried to until three people sat down a few seats away from where I was. Without meaning to I overheard part of their conversation. From my peripheral view I saw two men and a young woman huddled over the counter.

"You just stay here, no matter what," a gruff male voice said just barely above the music. "Pull any heroics and I'll send your ass to Canada."

I shifted in my seat, my curiosity now peaked. Running a finger around the rim of my glass, I watched as the two men were fidgeting on their barstools.

"Alright, I got it," the girl responded with a hint of humor in her voice.

One of the bartenders behind the counter took their drink order. Moments later he was handing them three bottles of beer. Even as they sat sipping from their drinks, the two males kept eyeing the room as if they were looking for someone.

"I'm feeling a sense of déjà vu," the girl said randomly and nudged the tallest man with her arm.

"That's not funny, Charlie," the man said back to her sounding tired.

"Maybe tonight is the night," she said, obviously ignoring him.

He let out a deep cough into his hand that seemed to last a long time. It caused both of his companions to sit stiffly in their stools.

"Alright, enough," the other man replied gruffly, ceasing all jokes.

The taller one excused himself suddenly for the bathroom and my eyes followed his path.

"Hi there!"

I jumped, sloshing part of my drink onto the bar counter. The young girl was sitting next to me suddenly; her bright red hair seemed even brighter up close.

Had they caught me eavesdropping?

"Hi," I replied cautiously.

The man who hadn't left for the bathroom got up and sat down beside her now, his eyes scanning me silently.

"You looked lonely sitting here by yourself, figured you could use some company."

"That's a little forward," I said stiffly, not liking the sudden attention.

The guy on the seat behind her made the fakest cough into his hand and I could have sworn I caught the word 'Christo'. I saw him narrowing his eyes at me, scrutinizing my actions.

So they were hunters. And tracking a demon.

The girl, who I had heard called Charlie earlier, didn't seem phased by my disinterest in her at all. Instead, she waved off the man beside her and turned back to me muttering "older brothers".

"I told them I just wanted a quiet night at home for my twenty-second birthday, but they wouldn't hear of it," she continued to rattle on.

"Twenty-second birthday, huh?" I asked absentmindedly as I watched the man beside her get up and meet the other by a back door, a bright 'exit' sign glaring above them.

I barely heard what she was saying next because it looked as if the two men were making to head out the back door. They were huddled together and whispering to each other. The taller of the two looked unnaturally pale; paler than he had looked before when he had been sitting at the bar.

"Is your brother okay?" I asked Charlie suddenly before I could staunch my curious interest.

She stopped abruptly, clearly in the middle of some story that seemed rehearsed. She glanced over her shoulder at the two men and I took note of the frown on her face.

"He has a cold," she answered.

"Looks worse than a cold," I said. "Do you really think it's a good idea for him to be hunting a demon in that state?"

"That's what Dean and I keep telling him but he…" she stopped abruptly, her eyes wide, and threw a hand over her mouth. "Christo," she said suddenly.

I shook my head, "It isn't me. I'm a hunter too."

"Oh thank God," she said relieved before throwing another glance over to where the men had just been standing. "I'm not really a hunter," she admitted, "I'm just sort of tagging along at the moment. It's kind of complicated."

"It always is," I told her in understanding.

"So were you working this case too?" She asked, eyeing the now practically empty glass of Jack and Coke in my hand.

"No, just passing through," I said absently.

"It seems like such a lonely life," she said after a moment.

"It's better not to make attachments in this career path," I replied simply.

She took a sip of her beer and glanced up at the baseball game I had been halfheartedly watching earlier.

"I'll be right back, ladies room," I said suddenly to her.

Making my way down to the darkened hallway where the restrooms were located, I heard a thud. It had come from outside by the back door the two men had left through minutes before. Stopping, I bit my lip and contemplated whether I should check to make sure these men were alright. The one guy _had_ looked really ill.

Before I could stop myself, I pushed open the metal door. It barely had shut behind me before I was reaching for the knife inside of my jacket pocket. The tallest of the two was unresponsive by the dumpster while the second man was pinned to the brick wall. His nose was bleeding profusely. The man holding him whipped his head around so fast it almost caused me to jump in shock. His eyes flashed black briefly before a sadistic smile covered his lips.

"What do we have here?" he cooed before roughly grabbing the man by the chin and forcing his barely conscious self to look at me. "That's news to me. The Winchesters working with another hunter?"

Winchesters? They were supposed to be like…legends. Why were they getting their asses handed to themselves by one demon?

"Doesn't matter, I'll kill you all. Crowley would love to use your heads to decorate Hell with," the demon said with a chuckle before dropping the man on the ground.

"Run," the man croaked out weakly to me, "Get out of here."

"Shut up, I'm trying to save your ass," I shot at him.

"Cute," the demon teased, his eyes flashing back to black.

He lunged at me, grabbing me by the throat and slamming me back into the wall. For a moment I felt all the air in my lungs disappear and I let out a choking cough. It wasn't until now that I realized I was feeling some of the effects of those drinks I had earlier. Fighting the growing nausea, I jammed the knife I had been holding into the demon's side. A look of pain mingled with surprise etched across his face before his grip slackened and he staggered backwards. He lit up in flames briefly before vanishing entirely.

I took a deep breath to steady myself and stem the growing nausea before turning my attention to the man who was still conscious on the ground.

"You alright?" I asked him as I made my way over and knelt down.

I helped him up into a sitting position and he immediately clutched at one of his ribs.

"How's Sammy?" he asked me between deep, labored breaths.

Assuming he meant the unresponsive man by the dumpster, I got up immediately at the concern on his face and made my way over to the man.

He was sprawled on the ground, his skin looked even more abnormally pale up close and there was a bruise on his forehead. Pushing his brown hair from his neck, I checked for a pulse.

"He's unconscious, but seems fine other than that," I said hesitantly and glanced back at the other man who was attempting to stand up. "You sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine," he replied stubbornly as he made his way over and began trying to hoist the other man up from the ground.

"Here, let me help," I offered.

Together we managed to lift him into a standing position, but the weight of him nearly broke my back in the process.

"I got him," the man said as he staggered a little under the other's weight. "Who are you, anyway?"

"Sierra Costella. I heard that demon mention you're the Winchesters?"

The man grunted and awkwardly offered me his hand to shake.

"Dean," he introduced himself. "And this is my brother Sam. He's more polite when he's conscious."

I grinned briefly as he smiled at his own joke. "I met your friend inside. Claimed to be your sister, but if the Winchesters had a sister I think that would be common knowledge."

A stern look crossed Dean's face. "She shouldn't be saying that, some idiot demon might believe it and think she'd make a good target."

"Right…" I said beginning to feel a little awkward now that the adrenaline was wearing off.

"Would you mind telling her to meet us by the car?" Dean asked me suddenly as he started maneuvering his brother and himself down the alleyway.

"Yeah, sure," I said.

Popping back in through the door I had just come out of, I spotted the girl Charlie at the bar absently sipping on her beer and watching the baseball game. She looked bored until she caught sight of me.

"Really long bathroom break," she said with a grin. "Who was he?"

I froze up suddenly before she broke into a laugh. "Kidding! But seriously, what kept you?"

"Your friends needed a little help. Dean wanted me to tell you to meet him by the car."

A serious expression took over her face and she nodded her head. Finishing the last of her beer, she hopped down off the barstool and took a few steps before stopping and glancing back at me.

"Aren't you coming?" she asked.

Standing there dumbfounded, I shook my head. "No?"

"Oh come on, you aren't planning on heading out to the next town already, are you? We've got rooms at—"

"You shouldn't be announcing where you're staying in the middle of a bar," I said, fighting back a grin, but I stood and followed her outside.

We found Dean leaning against his car only a block from the bar; he was drumming his fingers on the hood of it when we approached.

"The famous Impala," I said in moderate awe. "I've heard about her."

Dean grinned and gave his car a loving pat.

"You mind if we bring this party back to our room?" Charlie asked Dean hopefully before glancing over at me. "Of course, if you aren't busy," she added to me.

"It's barely ten, you can spare some time to have a beer with us, right?" Dean asked as he turned to me. "It's not often we run into many hunters. Plus we owe you for saving us."

"I suppose I have some time," I told the two.

Charlie gave me the details of where they were staying, Dean supplying brief directions.

"See you soon!" Charlie said excitedly before hopping into the back of the car.

I headed in the opposite direction, passing the bar on the way. Out of instinct I glanced down the alley. It was still empty.

* * *

"Beer?" Charlie offered the moment she opened the motel door.

I thanked her and took the bottle as I entered the room. Dean was leaning against the headboard of one of the three beds, a beer in his hand as well. Charlie led me to a little sofa where she reunited with her drink and her laptop. She closed the laptop, mumbling something about checking on a download of something.

"Your brother up and about I assume?" I asked Dean.

"Yeah, he's fine. Just cleaning up," he answered me, pointing towards what I guessed was the bathroom. "Should be out in a minute so you can meet him while he's conscious." He sat more upright now and asked, "How'd you know we were hunters?"

I smiled a little remembering the moment in the bar. "You guys had me the moment you said 'Christo'."

Dean grinned before taking a drink of his beer. "Of course."

Many questions for him started forming in my head; they had been ever since I had found out who they were. Strange things had been circulating through the hunter grapevine over the last week and they all centered around the Winchesters. I lost my train of thought when the bathroom door opened though and Dean's brother stepped into the room. He was in just a pair of jeans, clutching a towel in one hand. Feeling like my face was burning, I turned my attention to my beer and took a long drink, trying to avoid Charlie's now smiling face.

"First motel in days with hot water," he said in a deep voice.

Dean cleared his throat and made a motion with his head in my direction.

Sam suddenly smiled sheepishly and tossed the towel over his shoulder before crossing the room to me, his arm outstretched.

"Hi, I'm Sam. Dean told me how you saved us. We owe you," he said as he shook my hand.

"Sierra," I introduced myself, fighting the color from rising to my cheeks as I shook his hand, "and don't worry about it, just doing my job."

He crossed back towards a bed that had an open duffle bag on it and pulled out a shirt. I forced myself to look away but not before noticing he didn't look as pale as he had earlier. As curious as I was, I knew it would be rude to question him about it, and for some reason he had my tongue drying up in my mouth from nerves.

"That's an interesting knife you have," Dean spoke up suddenly, causing me to jump.

I tried to ignore Charlie's grinning face as I turned my attention to Dean. "So I've been told many times."

"What is it?"

I shrugged. "Family heirloom. My grandfather gave it to me years ago. I don't know much about it, but my grandfather always told me it could kill any demon. Much more efficient than an exorcism."

"Interesting," Dean mused as he stared at his beer bottle. "We've got a similar sort of knife, but the demons don't burn up like that when you stab them with it."

"How about we talk about something less boring?" Charlie piped up suddenly and ignored the look Dean shot at her. "Where are you from Sierra?"

"Nowhere really," I told her, not entirely wanting to get too personal. "I grew up on the road."

"So did we," Sam said from across the room, catching my eye.

"So you've been hunting your whole life?" Dean asked me.

I nodded in response and purposefully broke eye contact with Sam to take a drink from the bottle in my hands. "I was raised by my grandfather. I got out for awhile though and tried college."

"Really?" Sam asked. He made his way over to the makeshift dining area beside the sofa and sat into one of the chairs. "I went to Stanford for a bit," he glanced briefly to his brother and they shared a look before he turned back to me. "Didn't really work out though."

"Why does every conversation come back to hunting?" Charlie asked. "Can't we discuss something cheerful?"

Sam burst into another fit of coughs, his hand covering his mouth tightly. When he recovered, I could have cut the tension in the room with the knife in my pocket. It all made sense when I spotted the blood in his hand though.

"Are you alright?" I asked him, feeling stupid as the question left my mouth.

"I'm fine," he said with a halfhearted smile before heading back into the bathroom.

Silence enveloped the room. I could hear the faucet in the bathroom running as Sam cleaned the blood off of his hands, but the tension was still present.

"I think I should get a room and let you guys get back to what you need to do," I said the moment Sam came back.

"What?" Charlie said in sudden alarm. "Stay! Please!"

"I'm getting tired," I told her, which wasn't an entire lie. "It was nice meeting you all."

"If you aren't leaving too soon in the morning we should meet up for breakfast," Sam suggested.

"Yes!" Charlie said excitedly, glancing between the two of us.

I bit my lip in contemplation. I really wasn't in the middle of anything and I did have time in the morning.

"How about you come back here at nine tomorrow morning and before we head our separate ways we get some breakfast?" Sam said.

I glanced at Dean who only said, "I'm not going to turn food down."

"Alright, I suppose I have the time," I said slowly.

"Great!" Charlie exclaimed. "See you in the morning then!"

I smiled back at her and was a little surprised to see Sam heading over to get the door for me on my way out.

"Thanks," I said, briefly meeting his eyes and feeling my cheeks burn.

He smiled in response and I quickly turned away hoping he hadn't noticed my blush. It was common knowledge in the hunting community that the Winchesters were real lookers, but all the talk never did them justice once you saw them in person.

Without wasting anymore time, I made my way to the lobby and got myself a room. If this place had hot water I was definitely going to take advantage of that before I fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

"Why did I agree to breakfast?" I moaned into my pillow as the alarm on my phone continued to go off. "I could have slept in for once."

Reaching out blindly, head still buried in the pillow, I managed to shut the alarm off. I rolled over and kicked the covers off, feeling the cold draft that followed and wishing to lie back down even more. I rubbed my eyes and stretched before finally standing up. My duffle bag lay across the small plaid sofa across the room. Deciding another warm shower sounded like a good idea, I rummaged around in my duffle bag for clothes before heading off to the bathroom.

When I finally finished cleaning myself up, I caught sight of the time. I had about fifteen minutes before I had agreed to meet up with them. Deciding I really didn't want to show up early and look overly eager, I grabbed my phone and called Garth in hopes that he might have something productive for me to do. I was itching to be back on the road.

"Hey kid," Garth answered almost immediately.

I rolled my eyes but didn't say anything. He was barely over a year older than me but it didn't matter how many times I reminded him of this, I was always "kid" to him.

"Looking for a case?" he asked me.

"You read my mind," I said with a chuckle.

"Well, you still in Kansas?"

"No, I made it into Nebraska about midday yesterday," I told him.

"Hmm," he said and paused for a moment.

"Uh, Garth, you still there?" I asked after a bit of silence.

"How would you like to help out with a case I'm heading to in Colorado? Just a boring, run of the mill, dig up the ol' bones and burn 'em case, but I haven't got much else going on at the moment."

"When is anything ever run of the mill?" I asked him skeptically to which he chuckled.

"I'll text you the info and I'll call you probably around the early afternoon. Figure we should both be about there then."

"Sounds good, I'll be heading out in a bit. I ran into the Winchesters last night and helped them out with a demon and now they want to get breakfast."

"You ran into Sam and Dean?" Garth asked with renewed excitement in his voice. "How are those guys?"

"Sam…doesn't look so good. I think something's wrong with him but it isn't my place to ask. You think it has something to do with those trials we heard about?"

"More than likely," Garth answered. "What they were doing was pretty serious, can't imagine it wouldn't come with its own price to pay."

"They always seem to be in the middle of the worst of the worst," I mumbled. When I caught sight of the alarm clock by the bed, I realized I was about to be late meeting up with the others for breakfast. "I've got to go Garth."

"Alright kid, be safe. I'll text you soon with the info."

Stuffing my phone into my pocket, I made my way over to my bag on the sofa. I zipped it up and did one quick check to make sure I didn't leave anything behind before I raced down to the lobby to check out. The moment I turned to head back to the others' room, I found them entering the lobby from down the stairs.

"Thought you'd stood us up!" Charlie said with a smile.

"Sorry, I got a little…distracted," I told her.

"You've still got time for breakfast right?" she asked hopefully.

I nodded and was dragged out the door of the motel by Charlie while the brothers began checking out of their room.

"There's a diner just down the road that Dean's been talking about all morning," Charlie told me, pointing down the street. "He's got some weird love for pie," she added on as she made a face.

I let out a laugh as I glanced at the guys through the motel window. My eyes caught with Sam's for a moment before I quickly turned my attention back to Charlie.

"That's nothing compared to what I used to hear about Dean Winchester," I told her.

Charlie's face lit up. "Now you have to tell me."

"We had a mutual friend," I explained, "he thought of the Winchesters like his sons. Anytime I needed a place to crash his door was open, but it meant I was in for a story or two about these guys. Dean apparently used to be quite the ladies' man."

A sly look crossed her face. "So everything is true."

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Have you ever heard of that book series Supernatural? By Chuck Shurley?" Charlie asked.

I nodded with a knowing look. Bobby had told me all about those. "Yes, what about them?"

"Apparently some time around when he wrote the last book, Swan Song, he wrote a few other things, kind of like short stories almost. But they take place long after that book finished. Like he could see snippets of the future."

I was listening intently now. There was a rumor that had gone around awhile back that Chuck was dead, so there was no way he could have been writing these now.

"Well see, the guys explained that he was a prophet and was writing about them without knowing it at first, but it's curious that he wrote about things happening now," Charlie said.

"Like what?"

"Those tablet things the guys had been working on, the trials or whatever, were mentioned, although briefly. Sam's…illness. Something about the angels. And—" Charlie said, before she was cut off by Sam's deep voice.

"Charlie, stop."

A defeated look crossed her face. "I'm only trying to help."

"That's not helping. And Chuck can't predict the future; just because he wrote about it doesn't make it real."

The two stared at each other for a moment before Charlie turned back towards me, clearly defeated.

"Everything else seems to fit," Charlie mumbled only loud enough for me to hear.

"Right, about breakfast," Dean said, rubbing his hands together with a big smile on his face.

"Charlie mentioned a diner down the road, I can just meet you guys there," I told him.

"Sounds like a plan," Dean said, pulling the keys to the Impala out of his pocket and heading to his car with a straight-faced Sam following.

"You mind if I tag along with you?" Charlie asked me. "I'd rather not get told off by Sam just yet."

"Yeah, no problem."

"I'm going to ride with Sierra," Charlie called over to the guys.

Sam stopped as he was about to get into the passenger seat and gave Charlie a stern look.

Charlie held up her hands defensively right away. "I'm not going to say anything!"

Sam eyed her a moment longer before he got into the car and sat staring straight ahead. Dean and Charlie exchanged looks before he got into the car as well.

"What's that all about?" I asked her as I unlocked my car.

She didn't answer me until we had both gotten inside and I had started the car up.

"Just something I found in some of those things Chuck wrote. There was something a bit personal in there and…let's just say he doesn't like to hear about it. And he doesn't want to believe it," she explained.

I nodded and found I was kind of curious. "How did you find these little 'snippets of the future' of his?"

"Oh, they're online. All of his books are online, too." She smiled as she said, "The guys aren't really happy about that."

"I wouldn't be either," I mumbled.

"Have you ever read them?" She asked me curiously. "The books, I mean?"

I shot her a look. "Does it look like I have lots of leisure time?"

"No," she said with a laugh, "I guess not."

There was a pause in which she flipped on the radio and settled on some song she seemed to recognize and started bobbing her head to it.

"So why are you with the Winchesters, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Long story short, I've helped them a few times. And I'm also sort of on the run for a bit of hacking I did as a kid…they offered me some place safe to stay for a bit. We just keep getting side tracked before they can drop me off." She let out a sigh. "I don't know how you guys do this everyday."

"Don't really know anything else," I said absently as I followed the Impala into the diner's parking lot.

Before I had a chance to turn my car off Charlie turned to me and asked rather urgently, "What do you think of the guys?"

I raised a brow at her and spotted Sam and Dean talking in the now parked Impala. It looked as if they were having a serious discussion.

"They're…nice," I answered.

"Yeah. What about Sam?" she asked with a sort of desperate curiosity on her face.

I raised a brow at her. "What about Sam?"

"I saw you looking at him last night," Charlie stated bluntly.

A thought struck me suddenly. "Oh no, Charlie, I'm not interested in him. I wasn't trying to—"

She rolled her eyes with a grin on her face now. "They're attractive and all, but not my type, if you get what I mean."

"Oh," I said, relaxing. "For a moment I thought you were going to tell me off."

"So you do like him!" She exclaimed.

"What? No! I don't even know him!" I told her.

That sly grin I saw on her face back at the motel slid back into place. "You're attracted to him."

I opened my mouth to respond but was cut off by a knock on my window. I jumped and turned to see Dean with a quizzical expression on his face; Sam was staring at Charlie with his eyes narrowed. I saw her shoot him an exaggerated smile before she shot me a knowing look and got out of the car. Dean backed up and let me out as well.

"Sorry, been awhile since I've had girl time," Charlie said easily before heading into the diner.

Both Dean and Sam turned their gaze on me as if waiting for me to confirm their suspicions. I only shrugged sheepishly and followed after Charlie feeling entirely confused. There was something she had been getting at, but I couldn't figure out what.

An older woman led us to a booth and Charlie slid in one side, grabbing the sleeve of my jacket and pulling me along with her. Sam slid in first on the other side of the table so that Dean was sitting across from me. He didn't waste any time before picking up the menu and forgetting about the rest of us.

The waitress took our drink orders and I began eyeing the menu even though I knew what I wanted. Nobody was talking for a bit at first and out of the corner of my eye I kept seeing Charlie and Sam communicating to each other silently. I was grateful for the waitress coming back to take our orders and interrupting them.

"So where are you headed to next?" Dean asked me now that his attention was no longer on the menu.

"Colorado. Sounds like I've got a job taking care of a ghost," I told him.

"Do you always work jobs alone?" Dean asked, a look of concern on his face.

I shook my head. "No, not always. I've got other hunters I can call if I need help. Usually Garth and I work a case together here and there if we're nearby."

Dean made a face. "Garth as in—"

"Garth Fitzgerald, yes," I said with a grin.

"How's he been?"

"The same as you remember him, I'm sure," I told Dean with a grin.

"Are you two like," Dean started, seeming to struggle for the right way to phrase his question, "A thing?"

I nearly choked on my coffee at his question. "No! He's like my older, dweeby brother or something."

Our food showed up moments later and the sight of eggs and bacon had me too preoccupied to take note if Charlie and Sam were back to their silent conversations or not. No one really said anything while they ate, except for the random noises of enjoyment Dean kept making while he ate, which would always cause his brother to shoot him looks.

Once we finished I offered to pay the bill, but Dean wouldn't hear of it.

"You saved us the other night, I think we can handle breakfast," he told me.

Not that it mattered; I knew he was using a fake credit card to pay the bill just like I was taught to do.

We made small talk while we waited for the waitress to come back with Dean's credit card; Charlie kept strumming her nails on the table as if she was restless. Eventually the waitress headed back over and Dean was stuffing the card back into his wallet. We all got up and made our way to the parking lot silently.

"Well, I guess this is where we part," Dean said as the four of us stood between the two cars. "We really appreciate you stepping in when you did last night," he said, Sam nodding in agreement beside him with a strained smile on his face. "If you ever need us, or if we need bailing out again, maybe we should exchange phone numbers?"

"Yeah," I agreed.

Pulling out my phone, we exchanged info, Charlie even exchanging numbers with me.

"I'm sure we'll run into you again," Dean said.

I nodded as Charlie gave me an abrupt hug. When she pulled back she smiled and told me she'd be in touch soon.

"It was nice meeting you," Sam said politely offering me a less strained smile.

I noticed the bruise on his face had gotten a little darker, or maybe he had gotten a little paler again. I tried to fight the rising feeling of worry in my stomach as I said goodbye to him.

We each got into our separate cars and before I pulled out of the diner I gave the three a quick wave. Grabbing my phone out of my pocket I checked my text messages. True to his word Garth had sent me the name of the town we were meeting up in. Turning on the stereo, I was ready for a few hours drive to the next state.


	3. Chapter 3

"Get here all right?" Garth asked as he opened the door to his motel room and let me inside.

"It was quite the uneventful drive, yes," I told him before stretching out on his bed. "Been waiting here long?"

"Not really, maybe an hour or so. I was looking through the library archives for information on our supernatural friend so we could make quick work of digging them up."

"Yeah? What did you find?" I asked him, rubbing my eyes and sitting upright.

"Like I said," he told me, "just an easy bone burnin'. He's in the cemetery just a few minutes out of town. We can kill some time until it gets dark and then head out and take care of business."

"Sounds like a plan. You on phone duty?" I asked him.

Ever since Bobby had passed Garth had sort of taken over his job. He offered safe havens and help for other hunters; apparently Bobby had taught him a lot in the short span they had known each other. Garth might come off as a scrawny little guy, but he was smart and incredibly organized.

"Always am, kid. How was your breakfast?"

"Strange," I said simply.

He shot me a quizzical look and waited for me to say more.

"They've got this friend and she seems real interested in me and Sam. Other than that, and the tension from whatever is wrong with Sam, it was alright."

"She jealous, that friend?" Garth asked.

I shook my head. "No. Which makes me even more curious. But," I said with a shrug, "it'll probably be awhile before I run into those guys again."

"You never know," Garth said in a teasing tone.

"Stop it," I said with a laugh, slapping him on the shoulder.

"You hungry for an early dinner? We could grab something quick and take advantage of the premium channels here," he suggested.

"Yeah, actually, that sounds nice," I told him.

He paused in the middle of putting on his coat and shot me a look. "Burger King?"

"You know me so well, Fitzgerald," I said with a laugh. "And let's take my car. I don't want to have to get out and push your car through the drive-thru."

"She's never let me down!"

"Except for all of those times she has. Really, you should get a new car. Something reliable at least."

Garth gave me a look and I held up my hands defensively. "I'm just being honest."

We headed outside and got into my Toyota, something I considered a reliable car in comparison to Garth's old clunker of a vehicle.

* * *

"Bout that time, I'd say," Garth said as the credits to an old 80's movie started rolling. "Should be dark enough to get this over with."

I got up and stretched before slinging my duffle bag over my shoulder. "Ready?"

He was standing with his own bag in hands and eyeing up the room as if he was making sure he hadn't forgotten anything. "Yeah, let's roll out."

I suppressed a chuckle and followed him out, putting our bags of weapons into the trunk of my car before getting into the driver's seat.

"You said it's just out of the town?" I asked him.

He nodded and began giving me directions and eventually we pulled up outside a gated cemetery. We got out and I grabbed a shotgun with some salt rounds out of my bag while Garth found a shovel, some salt, matches, and a flashlight.

"Looks like we're going to need to climb the fence," I pointed out when we got closer. "It's actually locked and I don't have anything to cut it open with."

"This is why we should have used my car, at least I'm prepared," Garth chastised me.

I gave him a sheepish grin before sliding my shotgun through the gate. Taking a few steps back, I took a running start before jumping up onto the fence and slowly pulled myself to the top. Before I jumped down to the other side, I glanced to make sure Garth was coming along alright. He was already climbing up the fence now so I let myself drop to the other side and picked up our things. Seconds later he dropped down beside me looking winded.

"There's a reason I don't like physical activity," he muttered to me before grabbing the shovel from my hands.

"Who are we looking for now?"

"A Stephen Flemings," he told me as he wiped a hand over his brow as if climbing the fence really had taken a lot out of him.

I flipped on the flashlight and began reading the names on the tombstones. Row after row we walked until my light fell upon the tombstone that we had been looking for.

"This it?"

"That's him alright," Garth answered. "Might want to make a salt circle while I start digging. Just in case."

I nodded and began pouring salt around us in a large enough circle. When I finished with that, the two of us took turns digging up the grave. Since I only had one shovel in my trunk, it took about a half hour for us to finally dig up the casket. Garth broke it open and went for the container of salt and began pouring it on while I stood guard with my shotgun. Lucky for us, the burning of the bones went uneventful. Garth had tossed the lit match right as the ghost had started to materialize, but it went up in flames and disappeared before he could even say a word.

"I told you it would be easy," Garth said with a grin. "I'll start tossing the dirt back if you get rid of the salt circle."

We worked in silence for a few minutes before a voice caused me to jump in the air and point my shotgun in the direction it had come from.

A man was standing there with an earnest look on his face. He looked disheveled and lost, not to mention completely out of place standing in the middle of a cemetery in his suit and trench coat.

"You know Dean Winchester," the man repeated as he stared at Garth.

"I might," Garth told the man. "Depends who is asking."

"I wasn't asking," he said in a monotone, matter-of-fact voice.

Garth fidgeted in place and shot me a look. I gave a slight shrug but didn't lower my shotgun.

"Who are you?" I called out to him. "What's your name?"

He paused and turned to me, his head tilting to the side, before he answered. "I am Castiel."

"Oh!" Garth said, recognition hitting him. "You're that angel friend of theirs!"

Castiel's face fell at this comment. Garth realized his mistake a moment later.

"Sorry. Yes, I do know Dean," Garth told him.

"Where is he?"

Garth looked over at me for an answer, but I had no idea. I shrugged in response.

"I need to find him," Castiel said urgently.

"If you come with us I can call him up and see where they are. I just saw them this morning, they can't be far. I could take you to them?" I offered feeling a little awkward.

If this man was an angel, or whatever they were now seeing as Garth told me something had happened to all the angels about a week ago, I couldn't imagine what sitting next to him in a car for a few hours would be like.

"I will come with you then," Castiel said taking a step forward.

I exchanged a nervous glance with Garth.

"Well…let's get back to my car then since we're done here," I said, shifting uncomfortably and lowering my gun.

It was awkward silence that followed as we made our way back to the cemetery entrance. I slid our things through the fence again and began climbing it with Garth, but I stopped when I noticed Castiel standing there watching us with a perplexed expression on his face.

"Just grab on to these here," I told him, gesturing to some design in the gate that would offer as a foothold.

Awkwardly he did as I said and Garth and I pulled him over and directed him to jump down. Once he had made it over, the two of us jumped down after him.

"That was unpleasant," Castiel said.

"Er, yeah. Sorry," I said uncomfortably as I pulled out my car keys and unlocked the car. "You can get in, I'll just put these in the trunk."

The two climbed into the car, Castiel sitting in the backseat. I opened the trunk and placed the shotgun back in the duffle bag before pushing the shovel into the back of the trunk. I slammed the trunk lid shut and jumped in shock to see Castiel staring at me from the rear window. I shoved a strand of hair behind my ear and broke eye contact as I got into the driver's seat and started the car.

"It's about a seven minute drive back to the motel and when we get there I'll call Dean, alright?" I told the man in my backseat, eyeing him through the rearview mirror.

He nodded and began to stare out the window as I started driving. I noticed Garth kept glancing over his shoulder to look at him every few seconds, but Castiel didn't appear to notice.

As I had said, it took us about seven minutes to get back to the motel where Garth was staying. We made our way back up to his room, Castiel following behind us silently but staring at everything. Once in the room, I pulled my phone out and began searching for Dean's number. I dialed it when I found it and immediately began pacing the room. Garth stretched out on his bed and Castiel sat awkwardly on the edge of a chair on the other side of the room, watching me pace.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up," I muttered under my breath.

"Hello?" a gruff and tired voice finally answered.

I glanced at the alarm clock by the bed and noticed it had gotten late.

"Hey, Dean, it's Sierra. I didn't wake you or something did I?" I asked, biting my lip and feeling bad. Castiel had seemed to find this an urgent matter though.

"Sort of, but it's fine. What's up? Didn't expect to hear from you so soon. Garth and you have a problem?"

"No, actually, um, we kind of ran into someone. Castiel ring a bell?"

There was a pause and I heard him curse under his breath.

"You found him?" Dean asked.

"Not exactly, he sort of found us. Guess he recognized Garth. Anyway, he wanted to find you."

"What's he need now?" Dean asked sounding agitated.

"I'm not sure…" I said, my voice trailing off as I glanced at the man. He was still watching me pace the room. "He seems to think it's urgent. I told him I'd take him to you, I just don't know where you are."

There was another pause and another curse from Dean under his breath. "We're in northern Nebraska. If you're in Colorado we aren't that far away, probably a good day's worth of a drive. If you just stay put we'll meet up with you."

"No, really, it's fine. I don't think I can sit here with him staring at me," I told him, whispering the last part.

Dean chuckled a bit. "Alright. I'll have Sam text you the address of our motel and we'll just sit tight until you get here. Call either of us if you need anything, you hear me?"

"Yeah, got it," I told him before hanging up the phone.

"So?" Garth asked, eyebrows raised.

"They're in Nebraska still," I said then turned to Castiel. "If we leave now we'll get there by afternoon tomorrow probably. Unless my lead foot gets us there faster…or I need to stop for sleep."

He stood up hastily. "Let's leave now then."

"Alright, well," I said, turning back to Garth, "I'll check in with you later. The sooner we head out the better."

"Stay safe, kid. Call if you need anything."

"Will do," I told him.

I left the motel room, Castiel following closely behind me all the way back out to my car. He climbed into the front seat this time and buckled up when I told him to.

"I never needed one of these before," he said, stretching and unstretching the seatbelt around his chest.

I shot him a look and wondered if the entire drive was going to be this strange and I silently hoped he would fall asleep for awhile.

"You don't mind me listening to the radio, do you?" I asked him.

"Dean listens to music all the time, but Sam always tells him it's terrible and that he plays it too loudly," Castiel told me. "I think the music they both listen to sounds terrible."

I sat there chewing my lip, unsure if that was a 'yes' or a 'no'.

"How about I just don't turn it up too loud then?" I said after a moment.

There was no way I was going to sit in silence for about ten hours or more with only his strange comments to keep me awake.


	4. Chapter 4

**I'll be working on the next chapters to post soon after this, just curious to see if everyone is interested so far! Let me know!**

* * *

"That's your fifth coffee," Castiel pointed out as I pulled out of a Starbucks drive-thru.

"I'll fall asleep if I stop drinking it," I told him with my eyes still on the road.

"How much longer until we reach their motel?"

"Maybe an hour," I answered him.

After hours of having to be in the man's company I had grown used to his strange questions and odd way of speaking. He told me a little about what was going on with the angels too, for some reason apparently seeming to find me trustworthy enough to tell me. According to him, while the brothers had been trying to close the gates of Hell, which he had explained a bit further, including the part about Sam being ill, he was trying to lock all the angels back up in Heaven. Except that Metatron, the scribe of God, who had a name that constantly had me picturing him as a Transformer, had lied to him about the trials they had been doing. They hadn't been trials at all, but rather a spell that had made all the angels fall from Heaven. Which meant that Castiel was mortal, though he still seemed to have all of his memories.

"So, you have no idea what's wrong with Sam?" I asked Castiel for what felt like the tenth time, though he didn't seem to notice.

"There is something inside of him. Naomi said if he completed the trials it would kill him, but Dean had me bring him back to stop him from that. I'm not sure what is going to happen to him now."

"And you don't know of a cure?" I asked.

"No. I have never heard of a cure," Castiel replied, though he looked distraught. "If I still had my grace I might have been able to do more for him, but as I am now…I am useless. We are all useless."

I swallowed hard. What sort of terrible fate would humanity be in if angels ceased to exist and demons ran unchecked? With all of the angels now mortal there was a major imbalance between Heaven and Hell.

"There has to be something," I said to him. "There has to be some way to get your grace back—to get every angels' grace back. And a way to save Sam."

"I have never heard of such a thing," Castiel stated simply.

I glanced over at him as he fell silent and saw the deeply pained expression on his face. I drove on in silence for awhile, listening as the radio played a commercial. My exit was coming up in twelve miles according to my car's GPS, and then it would be only thirty minutes or so to the motel.

"It's all my fault," Castiel said suddenly, almost more to himself. "It always is my fault."

I didn't say anything, unsure of what _to_ say in that moment. Glancing over now and then at him, I noticed he was fidgeting with the bottom of his tie.

"I always think I'm doing what is right, but I get it wrong," he said a moment later. "Ever since God disappeared it's been chaos in Heaven. I never wanted this for my brothers and sisters."

We were silent for a moment as a song finally came onto the radio. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him raise a hand to his face and inspect it.

"Water?"

At the tone of confusion I turned and looked at him. He met my gaze and I saw tears on his face.

Just when I thought the trip wouldn't be all that uncomfortable, now I've got a fallen angel crying in my Camry.

"You're crying," I explained uncomfortably, not sure if I should comfort him, or even how to. "People do that when they feel sad."

"Oh," he said in a small voice and continued to wipe at his face and examine the tears on his fingers. "How long does it last?"

"Er, I'm not sure? Not long, usually…"

"I like the music you listen to," he said suddenly. "The words are happier. And less vulgar."

I shot him a half-smile, not really sure what was the proper response for that. He reached over and turned the volume up a little. An almost smile was on his face now.

I took the exit and was making good time. At a red light I shot Sam a text saying we would be there in a few minutes. I was definitely ready for this little awkward road trip to come to its end. Dean and Sam would know what to do with him.

"This is their motel," I pointed out when I pulled into the parking lot.

Castiel started trying to open the car door before I even had it parked. He got out and was waiting for me to finish turning the car off.

"They're in room 113," I told him as we headed up the outside stairs.

I read off the numbers until I found theirs and knocked three times. I purposely avoided making eye contact with Castiel while we waited for someone to get the door. It was Dean who finally got it and let us inside. Both Sam and Charlie were nose deep in their laptops.

"They aren't much fun when they're like that," Dean said when he saw what I was looking at. "And you," he said, now rounding on Castiel which caused Sam to look up from his laptop. "What did you do?"

"I-I didn't know," Castiel stuttered under the weight of Dean's glare. "I thought Naomi was lying, but when I went up to Heaven, she was dead. Metatron killed her. He took my grace. He took all the angels' grace."

Dean's glare softened, but only mildly. "So you didn't help him complete the trials?"

"No. They weren't trials. It was a spell."

"Alright, so how do we undo it?" Dean asked him.

"I don't know," Castiel answered.

"Great," Dean said irritated. "Let's just throw another problem our way, it's not bad enough as it is."

No one said anything; Charlie looked up from her laptop.

Dean shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to calm himself. Sam turned off his computer and got up, grabbing a bottle of water and offering it to me.

"Thanks," I said quietly.

"I don't even know where to start," Dean said in a voice barely audible. "I have to help Sam first, you know that right? And I don't even know where to start."

"I understand that," Castiel said simply. "But I must fix what I did."

"You didn't know what you were doing," I said, feeling sympathetic for him. I had just witnessed him crying and here Dean was ready to yell at him.

All the eyes in the room turned to me.

"Well, he didn't," I insisted.

"So you take his side?" Dean asked a little harshly.

"Dean," Sam said in a warning tone.

"I warned him not to!" Dean shot at his brother.

"How was Castiel supposed to know?" Sam asked his brother. "When has Naomi ever been much help?"

"If he would have just came with me and waited this wouldn't have happened!"

Sam broke into a fit of coughs that caused Dean to immediately stop the argument. His face changed from anger to concern in mere seconds as Sam excused himself to the bathroom.

"I guess you should know what's wrong with him," Dean said to me.

"Castiel told me on the way here," I said uneasily.

Dean sighed. "At least you're all caught up."

"I know you guys don't really know what you're doing right now," I said after a moment as Sam entered back into the room, "But I want to help."

Dean stared me down from across the room. "Help?"

"If there's more of us working on this maybe we can figure something out."

Dean glanced over his shoulder at his brother. Sam seemed to think a moment before he shrugged.

"Why not? She has a point," Sam said.

"I want to help too," Charlie piped up suddenly.

"No, absolutely not," Dean said sternly. "You are not a hunter, Charlie. I don't want to bring you into this."

"But I want to help! You guys have helped me so much," she insisted.

"That's what we do," Dean said.

"I don't have to fight anything, I just want to help. I can't stand seeing Sam this way, and I can't stand seeing how it's killing you."

Charlie sat there staring Dean down over the top of her laptop.

"This isn't a game, Charlie."

"I know," she shot back fiercely.

"We might be able to use her help," Sam said after a moment.

Dean looked defeated at his brother's words and sat down on one of the beds, running a hand through his hair.

"Fine, but you're staying on the sidelines," he told her sternly.

"So we're kind of like the Fellowship. Except there aren't nine of us," She said cheerfully.

Dean gave her a firm look and she disappeared back behind her laptop again.

"Now that that's settled, I'm going to go check into a room," I said as I made my way to the door.

"Stay, I'll sleep on the couch," Dean said getting up and moving to the couch.

"I'm not making you sleep on that thing," I said looking at the couch in disgust. "It looks like it would kill your back for starters."

"It's better if we're all together so nothing happens to anyone," Dean said eyeing all of us.

"I'm feeling tired," Castiel said flatly. "I've never slept before."

"Great," Dean muttered. "Human Cas is going to be hard to get used to."

"I cried for the first time earlier," Castiel said conversationally.

Dean shot me an apologetic look from across the room.

"No one has to sleep on the couch," Charlie spoke up again. "I don't mind sharing a bed with him as long as he stays on his side of it," she said pointing to Castiel. "And Sierra could share with you or Sam."

Immediately I caught on to what she was doing and I felt my cheeks burn.

"I don't think she wants to do that," Sam said hastily.

"If it keeps someone from sleeping on that thing," I said pointing at the couch, "I'll live."

"It's just sleeping, not sex guys, seriously," Charlie said with a roll of her eyes.

I averted my eyes to the floor and excused myself to get my things from my car. When I got back to the room Dean announced he was going to make a food run for everyone and wrote up a long list before rushing out of the motel room. It looked like he really just wanted to get away.

Charlie occupied herself with her laptop again while Sam and I tried to find a movie to watch on the TV. Castiel remained silent as he watched us, and somehow remained silent for the beginning of the movie, until I noticed he had dozed off.

"It's strange seeing him like that," Sam admitted at one point when he caught him sleeping. "I feel bad for him, and I don't think Dean yelling at him helps anything."

"He seems to place a lot of blame on himself," I whispered back to him. "I don't really know everything that has been going on in the grand scheme of things, but I think Dean should go easy on him. Or be forced to spend a long road trip alone with him."

Sam chuckled softly beside me.

"Seeing him cry must have been awkward," he said.

"You have no idea," I muttered. I caught sight of Charlie smiling at me from across the room and she looked back down to her laptop quickly. "What's she up to?" I asked Sam before I could stop myself.

Sam glanced over at her before clearing his throat uncomfortably. "Looks like Dean is back," he said suddenly. "Come on, I'm starving and you have to be too after that drive."

I sat there for a moment staring at the back of him wondering what the hell that was all about.


	5. Chapter 5

**Seems like a lot of people are interested in this story so far so I thought I'd update!**

* * *

Waking up I could feel a weight beside me, and in the brief moments before I remembered where I was, I felt a bit of panic. But then I heard Dean's groggy voice complaining about the alarm clock and remembered it was only Sam next to me.

Charlie and Castiel were in the bed next to us. She had created a barrier of pillows down the center of the bed to make sure he stayed on his side while he slept. As funny as I found it, I would have done the same thing. It wasn't like either of us would think he would try anything, it was just that he was incredibly strange being fallen angel instead of a human.

"Next time maybe we should get adjoining rooms," Charlie said as she sat up and stretched. "Now we've got one shower between the five of us."

"I'll go pick up breakfast," Dean said as he ran a hand over his face, slowly waking up. "You girls get ready first."

"I'll go with you," Sam said, already rushing to grab his jacket and pull on his shoes.

"Wake me up when you're done with the shower," I said to Charlie before lying back down and tugging the blankets up further.

Sam chuckled at me from across the room as he waited for his brother to finish pulling on his own shoes. The bed beside me shifted and I heard Castiel offer to go with them.

"Fine," Dean said after a moment. "But try to act normal, alright?"

"Dean," I heard Sam say in a warning tone.

"You're right, wouldn't be the first time we caused a scene at a Dunkin Donuts," Dean muttered.

I bit back a laugh and tried to close my eyes as they left the motel room. Falling back to sleep was easy, but waking up a second time to Charlie shaking me wasn't.

"Showers open!"

"Ugh," I grumbled and began kicking the sheets off of myself.

Grabbing some clothes that looked clean out of my duffle bag, I trudged into the bathroom and shut the door. By the time I had showered and was drying my hair with a towel I could hear the guys just getting back. My stomach gave a growl and I figured I looked good enough.

"Got you coffee," Dean said as I walked into the room and he handed me a cup.

Sam headed into the bathroom next after he finished up his coffee without saying a word.

"So what's the plan now?" Charlie asked as she bit into a doughnut.

"We're thinking we should head back to the headquarters we had told you about," Dean said. "Figure maybe we can see if they have anything in their records to help us with all of this."

"Headquarters?" I asked him as I took a doughnut.

"It was a secret organization called the Men of Letters," Dean told me.

"Very sexist," Charlie cut in.

Dean ignored her and continued to explain. "They were like an elite group of hunters and they were around for a long time. They documented a lot of things and kept them on file. Sammy and I were thinking that might be a good place to look and see if they had run into any of this Word of God stuff. Maybe we'll find a way to reverse whatever is going on with Sam there."

"And the angels," Castiel added.

"That sounds like a good place to start then," I admitted.

"How far away is it?" Charlie asked curiously.

"It will probably be a little over a day's drive, so we're going to have to make a stop again somewhere tonight," Dean answered her.

Charlie slumped in her seat clearly not thrilled at the prospect of another long car ride.

"You can always ride with me," I offered. "I wouldn't mind some company. And it might get cramped with Castiel riding with you in the Impala."

She seemed to brighten up a bit at the suggestion and agreed immediately. Dean got up and I noticed that Sam had finished showering. Thankfully he had put a shirt on so I could save myself the embarrassment of Charlie catching me staring at him again. He sat down on his bed and pulled out his laptop and stayed silent that way for awhile.

Castiel was staring out of the motel window watching the cars drive by on the street below. He seemed oddly silent since they had returned, but no one said anything so I figured it wasn't too out of the ordinary for him.

Once Dean had finished his shower, it was an amusing sight for Charlie, Sam and I watching him try to explain how to shower to Castiel. He looked so uncomfortable and would shoot us looks anytime one of us audibly made a sound.

"Thanks for jumping in and helping," Dean grumbled afterwards.

Castiel was out in a few minutes and we were ready to head out. All our things had been gathered up and packed away while we had been waiting on Castiel, and Dean had given me the address of where we were heading. We had agreed to try to stay close together on the drive and to call the moment one of us needed to stop to sleep tonight.

It wasn't long before we were on the road and Charlie was digging through my iPod looking for music and making comments on certain bands. She finally picked something and she eventually seemed to think she had made a good choice because she settled into her seat and relaxed.

"It's nice to hear something other than Dean's music for once," she commented.

That was the second time someone had made a comment about his taste in music and I wondered if it was really that bad.

"You sure you want to be getting involved in all this?" I asked her, my eyes still on the road watching the Impala in front of us.

It was a moment before she answered.

"Yeah. They've grown on me after all the time I've spent with them now. And they've helped me out of a few jams." She paused and then added, "It's not like I want to get involved in the fighting or become a hunter or anything, but research? I'm good at that."

"Dean mentioned you're great with computers," I said.

A wide smile crossed her lips. "So what about you? Why do you want to suddenly help them?"

"Because they look like they could use some help, and I don't leave fellow hunters alone in times of need. That wasn't what I was taught." I let out a sigh when I pictured Bobby's face full of concern whenever he told me about a tough situation the Winchester brothers had gotten themselves into and added on in a quieter voice, "That's not what Bobby would want."

Charlie suddenly turned halfway in her seat to face me. "If I tell you something, will you promise not to say anything? I don't want Sam to kill me but I can't hold it in any longer."

I eyed her suspiciously. "Is this what you've been trying to tell me but Sam keeps stopping you from saying?"

"Yes."

Chewing my lip in thought, I glanced back at the Impala. I was curious to know what he kept trying to keep her from telling me, but I wasn't sure I wanted to know at the same time.

"I suppose I can keep a secret," I told her eventually.

"Great! So you remember how I was telling you about those books?" she asked me, becoming fully animated now.

"Yeah, the ones Chuck wrote?"

She nodded her head. "Well I read the little…I don't know, we can call them manuscripts I guess, that weren't published before I started on the books—"

"Is that what you've been doing when you're on your laptop, reading those books?" I asked her immediately.

She gave me a sheepish look. "Don't say anything, alright? I'm sure Dean would freak. But they're kind of interesting and I've been curious if there's anything useful in them. But mostly I'm just curious," She admitted with a laugh.

I sighed and shook my head, shooting her a half grin and waiting for her to continue.

"Like I said, I read the unpublished stuff first and there were snippets about the demon tablet and the trials, though it never said what the trials were, and in those little short stories Sam is really sick, which I'm assuming is from the trials. And in another little snippet he wrote about something happening to the angels; they were all cast out of Heaven. Which I guess now we've found it is because of some spell by this…Megatron—"

"Metatron," I corrected automatically.

"Still sounds like a Transformer to me," she said.

I shot her a grin before letting out a laugh. "That's exactly what I thought."

Smiling, she continued on, "Well there's other stuff mentioned in these manuscripts besides the tablets and Sam being sick. In one of them Sam supposedly meets some woman at a bar—"

"Please spare me the details here," I said jokingly.

Charlie rolled her eyes at me and continued as if I hadn't interrupted. "—and it makes a comment that he doesn't know it yet, but she is what keeps him from running off to complete the last trial on his own, the trial that would kill him if he did it."

"I thought Dean stops him from doing that?"

"He did, but it seems like the manuscript hints that Sam regrets not finishing it and that he wants to. And, the thing is, he makes comments from time to time. In real life, I mean, not the stories. He talks about how he shouldn't care about sacrificing his life to save so many others. It always gets Dean in a sour mood when he does, which is why I think he wants us all to stick together, so he can keep an eye on all of us. Especially Sam."

"So you two think Sam is going to run off and finish this last trial, whatever it is—"

"Curing a demon," she supplied.

"Curing a demon? That's possible?" I asked in awe.

"Apparently it is."

"Well, shit." I said after a moment, not having any idea that was even a real way to deal with demons. "So, you two think he's going to run off and cure a demon and get himself killed?"

"Dean thinks so. He's always watching Sam, and when he isn't, he's got me watching him. It's only a matter of time before he figures out that Dean is keeping tabs on him, and if I know the two like I think I do by now, that's only going to cause problems."

"And according to Chuck's manuscripts, he meets some chick at a bar and magically he stops the heroics?"

"I'm assuming it has to do with love or something, I don't know. It doesn't really say. It doesn't really say anything about the woman though, just a little bit of a description."

"Huh," I said, deep in thought.

"I think it means you," Charlie said after a moment.

"What?" I asked, completely appalled. "No, I don't think so, that's ridiculous."

"You sound just like them," Charlie said with a sigh. "Chuck was right about everything else so far, why not about this too?"

"Maybe he thought throwing in a love interest would be a nice change of pace? I don't know, but I don't believe _that_."

"Why not?"

"Because," I said, "you said yourself it's very vague. Maybe Chuck didn't know what he was seeing. And like Sam said, he can't predict the future."

"Sure seems like he knew a lot about it though," Charlie mumbled out.

"I just think it sounds farfetched."

"You are attracted to him; I've seen you get tongue-tied with him," Charlie pointed out.

"Who wouldn't be attracted to him?" I said automatically.

"And you're going to be spending a lot of time with him now that we're all working on this case together," Charlie added.

"That doesn't mean anything, hunters work together all the time."

"And you met in a bar exactly like in the manuscript," she continued on.

"Coincidence," I insisted.

Charlie shot me a sly grin. "I've caught him staring at you. I think the feeling, whatever it is, is mutual."

I shot her a look. "I think you're imagining things now."

"If you guys start falling for each other, don't say I didn't warn you," she said smugly as she leaned back into her seat.

"If that somehow did even happen, that doesn't make Chuck right. Ever hear of a self-fulfilling prophecy? You've told us both about it now."

"If it saves his life and makes the both of you happy, what does it matter what sort of prophecy it is?" Charlie asked.

I had no clue how to answer her so instead I said, "I see why Sam kept trying to keep you quiet now."

She let out a little laugh. "Part of it is because he thinks he's in love with some girl he met about a year ago and spent a lot of time with. Her name was like…Amy or something, I don't know. Anyway, she thought her husband was killed in action, he's in the military by the way, but turns out one day he just shows up. So, eventually, Sam leaves thinking he's doing the right thing."

"When did he have time for all of this to happen?"

"Dean was in purgatory or something I think?" Charlie said looking as if she was deep in thought. "I think that's what it was. No one talks about it much; it seems to be a trigger subject that starts fights."

"I can't imagine why," I said sarcastically.

"Anyway, long story short, it seems Chuck seems to think you and Sam are supposed to fall in love or something. You're supposed to keep him from finishing the last trial so he doesn't die."

I rolled my eyes dramatically. "Just because I'm not arguing with you about it doesn't mean I think you're right." I ignored the look she was giving me. "Besides, if Sam doesn't finish the trials, and we don't find some sort of cure for him, he's going to die. So I don't see what some chick at a bar has to do with anything here."

"Sooner or later you're going to realize Chuck and I are right on this," Charlie said in a sing-song voice.

"If you say so—hey, I think Dean is texting me, can you get that?"

Charlie grabbed my phone from the cup holder and checked the text.

"He's hungry," she said simply. "Oh wait, he just sent something else."

"What?"

"Are you serious?" she said, staring at my phone.

"What?" I asked again.

"He said he wants pie. Why does he always want pie?" she asked and then turned to glare at the Impala that was a little ways ahead of us.

I laughed at the look on her face. "Why does it bother you so much?"

"Do you have any idea how difficult it's going to be finding a diner that is suitable enough for his pie needs?" Charlie asked me seriously. "It's going to be another hour before we stop for food."


	6. Chapter 6

**So I'm a bit of an insomniac and wrote up two more parts. Thanks to the reviews from SomebodyWhoCares, murphy9202, and sammysruby; seeing that people are interested really pushes me to write up more chapters.**

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"Hey, I'm starting to get tired," I told Charlie as she was browsing the internet on her phone. "Can you grab my phone and dial Dean's number for me?"

She pulled it out of the cup holder and did as I asked before handing it to me. As I waited for him to answer, I thanked Charlie for lowering the volume on the stereo.

"Yeah?"

"Oh, hey _Sam_," I said, glancing over at Charlie who wasn't bothering to cover up the mischievous smirk on her face. "I was just wanting to let you guys know that I'm about ready to find a place to sleep."

"There should be an exit in a few miles, I'll have Dean pull off there and we can stop for the night," he said. "You good for a few more miles? We could always pull over and I could drive if you need me to."

"No, I'll be fine for a few miles. Thanks, Sam," I told him in a rush, hanging up before he could respond. "Why did you call Sam?"

"Oh, no reason. Figured Dean was busy driving and Sam could take a message," Charlie said slyly.

"Are you going to be doing that this whole time?" I asked her seriously. "You're going to make things weird soon."

"Fine, I'll just wait for nature to take its natural course," she said with a wink.

"Charlie," I rebuked.

"Okay, okay, I won't do it anymore," she said in defeat. "I found a motel on that exit coming up, I'm going to text Sam the details. Maybe he'll call and set up rooms so we can get into a bed already."

"You really don't like road trips," I observed.

"I've been on the run most of my life, but I've managed to stay in one spot for fairly long before I had to pack up and move again. Moving around constantly like this is crazy. Not to mention, we cross time zones so much I feel like I'm time traveling on a daily basis."

"I am so glad you came with me, I don't think this drive would have been the same without you," I told her with a laugh.

"Another reason why you guys should keep me around a little longer: I offer comic relief," Charlie said matter-of-factly. "Granted, so does Castiel, but he doesn't do it intentionally."

"How was sharing a bed with him last night?" I asked jokingly as I followed the Impala's tail lights down the exit ramp.

"Fine, the pillow barrier did its job. I don't think he moved an inch once he fell asleep to be honest."

"I feel bad for him," I admitted. "He seems to place a lot of blame on himself. And Dean just doesn't give the poor guy a break."

"I think deep down Dean feels bad for him too," Charlie told me.

I spotted a sign for a motel up ahead and pulled a face. Some of the letters in the name were missing so I wasn't even sure what the place was called.

"Is this seriously where we're staying?" I asked her.

"The guys do like crappy little dives of places. They've taught me how to look for the shadiest ones. It's easier to stay hidden here than at a Hilton."

"At least at a Hilton I'd know someone changed the sheets before I slept in them," I muttered.

"We could always play let's-see-who-can-find-the-most-bed-bugs before we go to bed," Charlie offered sarcastically.

"I'm definitely not sleeping now," I told her as I pulled into a parking spot.

"Yes you are, you're too tired to care right now," she told me with a grin.

I shot her a playful look over my shoulder before I got out of the car. "Oh Charlie, you've gotten to know me so well."

"I take it you two became best friends?" Dean called over to us, a pleased look on his face.

"We're going to Instagram the moment later," Charlie called back to him.

A confused look crossed Dean's face. "I don't know what that means." He paused and scratched his head, glancing to his brother for help. Sam only shrugged and started pulling duffle bags from the trunk of the Impala.

"You're terrible," I told her as we began unloading the trunk of my car.

"And yet somehow, I feel like you and I did just become best friends. And we _will_ Instagram the moment later," Charlie said simply.

I pulled out my two bags and tossed the straps over my shoulder, slamming the trunk shut when I was sure I had what I needed. I spun around expecting to find Charlie waiting for me, but instead came face to face with a dark haired man. I jumped a little in shock.

"You scared me," I told the man, taking a few steps back to put some space between us.

"Sorry, love," the man said with an accent I couldn't quite place.

When he didn't disappear, I glanced over my shoulder and saw the other four standing by the motel entrance. I turned back to the man in the dark suit and took another step back.

"Can I help you?" I asked him uncomfortably.

"Actually, yes. There is something I do need your help on," the man replied with that smooth voice of his. "But I also should probably speak with the Winchesters too, I don't think they'd like to feel left out."

At the mention of the Winchesters I began digging into my jacket pocket for my knife. "Who the hell are you?" I growled out as my fingers found the handle of the blade.

"Hey, what's taking you so—_Crowley_?" Dean called out. "Get the hell away from her you son of a bitch."

It felt like a matter of seconds before Dean was suddenly beside me, pushing me back towards Sam. Sam grabbed my arm protectively while trying to block Charlie and Castiel from view.

There was a look of determination on the man's face now. He threw his hands up easily as if to show he was completely harmless.

"I'm not here for a fight," his smooth voice said. "But I do need some help."

"Ha!" Dean spat as if helping this guy was the last thing he'd ever do.

"Now, now," the man continued as if scolding a child, "I haven't even gotten to the part about why I'm here."

"Then make it quick," Dean shot.

"Fair enough," he replied. "It seems we have a bit of a problem. One that requires some help from your new friend there. When the time comes, I'm going to need to, let's say, _borrow_ her services."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Dean said immediately. "_We _have a problem? When has there ever been a _we _that involved you? And what makes you think we're going to let you near her?"

Sam's grip on my arm tightened a little and I felt him pull me closer. I had to adjust the knife in my hands so it didn't tear a hole in his jacket at the sudden movement.

"There became a _we _the moment you decided to dig up Humpty Dumpty and put her back together again," Crowley sneered.

"You mean Abaddon?" Dean clarified.

"You see, she's still looking for a regime change. And I sort of like the cushy title of King of Hell," Crowley said, taking a few steps towards Dean in an attempt at intimidation.

"And you think we care why? It doesn't matter who's ruling over you dirtbags, you're still dirtbags," Dean growled back.

A humorless smile appeared on Crowley's face. "Actually, I'm quite sure you would care about who is meant to replace me. I'm sure Sam would agree, seeing as he's had a rather _intimate_ acquaintance with him."

Sam's grip slackened on my arm and eventually he let go of it. His entire demeanor changed; he was standing rigid as a board and his fists were clenched at his sides.

"No, she wouldn't," he choked out.

"She's trying to," Crowley said smoothly as his head turned a fraction in Sam's direction.

"Dean, we can't let her," Sam said in a strained voice.

"What's he talking about?"

Both brothers turned and exchanged glances as if neither wanted to say it aloud.

"Oh for crying out loud," Crowley said in irritation. "She's going to break Lucifer out of his cage."

My heart felt like it skipped a beat inside my chest. "Lucifer as in like…_the_ Lucifer?"

"He's not Justin Bieber, love," Crowley shot sarcastically at me.

"Then we have to do something, right?" I asked looking between both Dean and Sam for some sort of confirmation. Sam looked as if he was in pain.

"Now that you're on the same page, love, how's about we go back to my earlier mention of needing to borrow your services at a future time in question?" Crowley said easily.

"No," Dean answered immediately.

"That depends," I said, ignoring Dean and the look he was shooting me over his shoulder. "What exactly do you mean by 'borrow my services'?"

Crowley grinned briefly. "Nothing so vulgar as that. You're a hunter, you kill demons. All I want you to do is kill a demon."

"If you're talking about Abaddon, you're crazy. That's a suicide mission; Abaddon can't be killed!" Dean snapped.

"I beg to differ," Crowley argued. "It's just rather a peculiar business taking her out."

"How so?" Dean demanded.

"Now, now. I'll explain the details when the time comes as long as you agree to the job," Crowley said staring me down.

"This isn't some sort of trick?" I asked hesitantly.

Dean let out a sound of disbelief. "You can't be serious! You're going to agree to help a demon, Crowley at that, without knowing any of the details?!"

"There's no other way?" I asked turning to face Crowley.

A small smile was playing on his mouth now at the scene unfolding in front of him. "None that I would put my faith in."

"Right, because that's a reliable answer coming from a reliable source," Dean scoffed. He glanced over at his brother who had remained silent throughout the entire exchange. "Come on man, back me up here!"

"He can't be let out," was all Sam managed to say.

Dean's face fell at his brother's words. "No, come on. We'll find a better way."

"How?" I asked him.

"I don't know, let's just not jump into anything right now!"

"I'll leave you three to puzzle this one out. In the meantime, I'll be trying to find the wench and make sure Jack stays in his box." Crowley shot me a smile that made my skin crawl. "We'll be in touch, love."

And just like he had appeared, he disappeared.

"Do not tell me you are seriously considering this," Dean growled as he turned and began rounding on me. "He's a sneaky son of a bitch and he doesn't care if he gets you killed. We can figure this out on our own."

"Yeah?" I asked skeptically. "When? Between trying to save your brother and fixing Heaven, now we're going to find a way to stop a demon from letting Lucifer roam free?"

"She's not just _a_ demon!" Dean shot at me, his temper rising. "She's incredibly powerful and she can't even be killed!"

"That's absurd," I sneered. "Everything can be destroyed."

"So then let's figure it out on our own!" Dean said again.

"Stop it!" Sam shouted. He had his face buried in his hands and he was looking sickly pale once again. "Just stop fighting already, it isn't getting us anywhere."

"And what do you suggest?" Dean grunted at his brother, though his temper had calmed drastically at his interjection.

"She's old enough to make her own decisions," Sam began to which Dean cut him off.

"You too? Seriously, Sam."

"Why not just go along with it and figure out why he needs her to do this? Maybe we can do it without him in the end," Sam reasoned.

Dean stood there tight lipped for a moment in thought. "I think we should listen to Sam," he said finally, his voice sounding a little less harsh. "We work with him for now, but we continue to work on this on our own. He'll screw you over in the end, trust me on that."

"Fine," I agreed. "Can we just get our rooms and get some sleep now?"

"Sam booked rooms when we were on the road," Dean informed us. "Cas and the two of us have a room, you and Charlie have the room next to it. Put up devil traps before you go to sleep, we don't need another night time visit on our hands."

"Was already planning on it," I muttered as I adjusted the strap onto my shoulder and followed Dean into the building.


	7. Chapter 7

Tip-toeing out of the room, I shut the door carefully behind me. A slight chill in the hallway caused me to shiver but I just crossed my arms over my chest trying to keep the warmth in my sweatshirt. After the scene outside earlier, I could barely get any sleep. I kept picturing Crowley showing up again inside the motel room.

I paused in front of the room next to the one I was sharing with Charlie. I figured the other three were asleep when I didn't hear anything and continued down the hallway. I figured if I couldn't sleep I might as well enjoy a late night vending machine snack.

After walking a ways down the poorly lit hallway, I was disappointed to find there was already someone leaning against the wall across from the vending machine. I frowned at the slouching figure. Who else was even at this motel anyway? But then I recognized the flannel shirt and the dark brown hair.

"Sam?" I whispered.

He jumped and spun around, his eyes wide in shock until he noticed it was just me.

"Sorry!" I said sheepishly. "I didn't mean to sneak up on you!"

"It's fine," he said, taking a deep breath. "Couldn't sleep?"

I shook my head. "No. You either?"

"No," he answered, fidgeting with the can of Pepsi in his hand.

Everything Charlie had told me earlier started running through my head and I could feel my palms sweating. I cleared my throat uncomfortably and pushed those thoughts away.

"I'm sorry about Dean earlier."

"It's fine, you don't need to apologize for your brother. I get it, he's concerned." I crossed the three steps to the vending machine and put in my dollar, glad the stupid machine took it on the first attempt. "He seems to feel like he has to save everyone though."

"If you figured that out about him then you know everything you need to," Sam said half jokingly from his place against the wall.

I pushed the button for a Mountain Dew, realizing as I did so that the sugar would only keep me awake even longer. Grabbing the can that dropped, I popped open the tab and joined Sam.

"It seems like he's carrying more of a burden than he needs to," I told him.

Sam shrugged. "He always has."

"What about you?" I asked, looking up at him. "Earlier it looked like there was a lot going on in there," I said, gesturing to his head.

Sam suddenly became fixated on a spot on the carpet, running the toe of his shoe over the spot continuously. "It's sort of a long story," he said awkwardly.

"Bobby told me quite a bit," I admitted, causing Sam to look up at the mention of his deceased friend. "I knew him too," I said when I noticed the interest on his face. "He talked a lot about you and Dean. He told me all about what happened to you when you were, you know, in Hell."

He turned his attention back to the spot on the ground again. There was a long pause where neither of us said anything but continued to sip on our unhealthy drinks.

"It just brought a lot of memories back," Sam finally said, breaking the silence.

I knew what he meant. Crowley mentioning Lucifer, and mentioning how he had once been inside Sam when he dragged him back into Hell and put him in that cage, there was no way it hadn't brought up some bad memories. It had been quite obvious something was going on with him in the parking lot.

I remembered everything Bobby had told me about Sam back then. I had always secretly thought he was the most selfless human being to sacrifice himself like that for the sake of humanity. Enduring all of that torture of being hog-tied to Satan himself for a world full of people that had no idea what he was doing? That was admirable beyond words.

"We won't let Abaddon undo what you did," I assured him.

He cleared his throat and scratched the back of his neck. "Charlie is right, we really don't talk about many cheerful things."

I laughed at the observation because it was true. We only ever seemed to talk about hunts and catastrophic situations.

"I don't think I even know anything cheerful to talk about," Sam admitted guiltily.

"Oh come on!" I teased playfully, enjoying the smile that suddenly lit up his face. "All that time hunting with your brother and you don't have any funny stories to tell?"

Sam chuckled. "You're right. I guess we do have our moments. Not like we used to though." He let out a sigh and his smile faltered, but the grin came back a moment later, accompanied by a distant look in his eyes. "We used to have prank wars back when we first started hunting together again. It was so stupid," he admitted, the smile on his face becoming infectious. "I remember crazy gluing his hand to a beer bottle because he poured itching powder on one of my shirts. I thought I was just allergic to the motel soap."

I started laughing at the thought. "I take it you guys haven't done that in awhile?"

"Pranked each other? No. Things have been pretty crazy the last few years. There's been a lot of tension between us with everything that's happened."

"I can't even imagine what that all must have been like."

"So what about you?" Sam asked curiously, purposely changing the subject.

"Me?"

He smiled encouragingly. "Yeah, you've got to have some interesting stories to tell, right?"

"My stories generally consist of me embarrassing myself with Garth at a bar," I told Sam. "He likes to celebrate after we finish a hunt."

"Let me guess, you get easily embarrassed doing drunk karaoke?" Sam teased.

I playfully slapped his shoulder. "So I'm not nearly as exciting as crazy gluing body parts to alcoholic beverages, give me a break!"

"Don't let Dean know you embarrass easily," Sam warned me, "because he'll try to at every opportunity he can."

"I don't embarrass _that_ easily," I said in my defense.

Sam stopped mid-grin as if struck by a thought. "How do you feel about a late night swim?"

I eyed him suspiciously. "You mean here?"

"Yeah. I noticed an indoor pool earlier. It's probably closed now but it's not like either of us isn't capable of breaking and entering."

"Indoor motel swimming pools just scream disease infestation," I said half jokingly.

He shrugged and shot me a devious look. "Live a little."

I bit my lip, contemplating the idea. "What the hell," I said after a moment. "I can't sleep anyway."

Smiling wide, he pushed off the wall and started making his way down the hall at a fast pace, glancing over his shoulder back towards me. "You coming?"

"My legs don't move as fast as your giant ones!" I called after him in a harsh whisper.

Just as we had suspected, the room to the pool was locked, but of course as Sam had said, it didn't stop us. It only added a minute's delay. Sam downed the rest of his drink as we entered before smashing the can in his hand and tossing it into a bin nearby. He pulled off his shirt and began kicking out of his jeans and I figured I should follow suit before he caught me staring.

Once I had stripped down to my bra and underwear, I was freezing even more. Sam had already jumped in and was resurfacing now, wiping hair from his face and shooting me a grin.

"It's actually warm," he called out to me, his voice echoing off the walls.

"I swear if you're lying, Winchester," I warned him with an empty threat.

He splashed water towards the edge of the pool where I was standing, but it missed by a few feet.

"Just jump in already!"

Figuring it was better to jump in than stand there half naked any longer, I ran the few steps forward and jumped in, splashing Sam in the process. He wasn't lying about the water being warm.

"I can't even remember the last time I've been in a pool," I admitted as I pushed wet strands of hair from my face.

"Sometimes when we aren't in the middle of a case Dean and I will jump in one. But usually as an after hours thing," Sam said as he made his way over towards me in the water.

"So breaking and entering is a normal occurrence for you?" I teased him.

"Something like that," he said, reaching out to push a strand of hair I had missed from my face.

I could immediately feel my heart hammering in my chest when I realized we were both standing in a pool, alone, half naked.

"You should relax like this more often," Sam said gently.

"So should you," I replied breathlessly.

It happened so suddenly that it took my brain a moment to register his lips were on mine. When I did, I responded immediately to the kiss, our mouths in sync, until he pulled away.

A worried expression was on his face. "I shouldn't have done that, I don't know what came over me, I'm sorry—"

"Don't apologize."

I pulled his mouth back to mine, not sure what had come over _me_, but I wasn't ready for this moment to end. He didn't pull away this time and instead placed a hand on the back of my neck to pull me closer. Without breaking the kiss he started moving us towards the edge of the pool until I felt my back hit the tiled wall. The surprise of it made me gasp.

Sam pulled away just barely, a smile on his face, but something caught his eye over my shoulder. "Shit, lobby attendant. Run for it!"

The two of us jumped out of the pool grabbing our clothes and a towel before sprinting out of the pool room and down the hallway to our rooms. The lobby attendant was calling after the two of us but he didn't bother to pursue. When we finally reached our hotel room doors we were out of breath and dripping all over the horrible carpet. A chill ran down my spine and goosebumps broke out over my skin as I suddenly realized how cold I was.

"I'll see you in the morning," I said with a devious grin before opening the door to my room and slipping inside.

Charlie was sound asleep in her bed and I hurried to wrap the towel around myself. I really didn't want her to catch me after Sam and mine's late night rendezvous. I could only imagine what she'd have to say about it.

Changing into dryer clothing, I hid my wet clothes in the bathroom hoping they would be dry before she woke up and discovered them. I crawled into bed after and enjoyed the warmth of the blankets. Rolling onto my side, I closed my eyes and tried to clear images of Sam from my mind until I eventually fell asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

**Been busy working the last few days so I didn't have a chance to update sooner. Thanks again to murphy9202, SomebodyWhoCares, and Sophie for your reviews! Glad so many of you are enjoying the story so far!**

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I woke up to Charlie shaking me roughly and saying something that my tired brain couldn't make out.

"What?" I asked her groggily. My eyes slowly began adjusting to the morning light that was flooding the room.

"Your alarm on your phone was going off for the last two minutes," she repeated. "Drove me insane; I kept telling you to wake up but you were dead asleep."

The events of last night came rushing back to me and I felt myself blush. Before Charlie could notice my red cheeks I turned away and picked up my phone. Garth had sent me a text an hour ago checking up on me.

"You just wake up?" I asked her as I began writing a reply to Garth.

Charlie lazily plopped back down on her bed beside mine and stretched out, throwing her arms behind her head. "I did about two minutes ago when your alarm went off." She shot me a fake glare before turning her head back and closing her eyes.

Remembering I had left my clothes to dry in the bathroom after jumping into the pool with Sam, I quickly said, "I'm going to grab a shower if you're going to doze back off."

Charlie nodded lazily in response. I set my phone back onto the nightstand and grabbed my bag of clothes before making my way into the bathroom. When I began undressing I noticed that my hair smelt faintly of chlorine. I bit my lip hoping that Charlie hadn't caught the scent when she had been waking me up.

"You're being ridiculous," I muttered to myself in the mirror. "And you're a grown woman. Who cares what you do."

With a determined air, I finished undressing and turned on the shower. It was a moment before the warm water actually came out of the faucet. I stepped in and felt my muscles relax and my eyes involuntarily close. I figured I had only gotten a few hours of sleep last night when I had finally gotten into bed, which meant I would need a lot of coffee to keep me up for the rest of this drive. Hopefully it wasn't too much longer until we reached that headquarters Dean had told me about.

I washed as fast as I could, fighting to keep my eyes open. These skeevy motels rarely offered a chance for a nice shower to begin with without me falling asleep and using up all of the warm water. Drying off, I quickly threw on some clothes and headed into the main room to see Charlie already pulling clothes together for a shower.

I began brushing through my hair thankful that it dried into fairly nice waves even if I did nothing to it. Living life on the road never really called for spending much time on my appearance. Besides, who was I planning on impressing? I barely spent much time with anyone.

Except part of me secretly wished I had an arsenal of make-up at my fingertips to use right now. And a nicer wardrobe. It was hard to stay stylish on a budget, but even harder when everything I owned needed to be something that could take a beating on a hunt. Yet, as I heard the shower turn on in the other room, I stared at my outfit in the mirror wondering if it flattered my figure or not.

I shook my head, snapping myself out of the thought. What did I care if my jeans made my ass look nice or not? I was going to be driving a car for the next few hours.

"Pull yourself together, Sierra," I told myself firmly. "He's just a guy. It was just a kiss." I frowned at my reflection. "Okay, so it was a few kisses, but the fact remains the same; it didn't mean anything."

A knock on the motel door caused me to jump.

"You talking to yourself in there?" came Dean's amused voice.

I crossed the room and opened the door. He was standing there with a grin on his face and a bag of McDonald's in his hands.

"Thought you two might want breakfast," Dean said cheerfully before bursting into the room and setting the bag down on the little round table. "Sam, Cas and I just got back from grabbing some food, but we figured you two were still just waking up."

I grinned sheepishly before heading to the table and pulling some food out of the bag. "Thanks, Dean."

"Just waiting on Charlie to finish up then?" he asked me casually.

I nodded as I bit into an egg sandwich. I chewed briefly and swallowed before asking, "How much longer of a drive do we have left?"

"Maybe five hours," Dean answered.

Taking another bite of my breakfast, I noticed Dean fidgeting around a bit in his chair. It looked like something was bothering him. We sat in silence as I ate for a few minutes, but it wasn't long before he spoke up.

"I noticed Sam disappeared for a bit last night."

I froze mid-bite and slowly turned my attention to him. "What do you mean?" I asked, forcing the guilty look off my face.

His brows furrowed together in concern and I immediately realized I was in the clear. He had no idea what had happened last night between his brother and me. I let out the breath I had been holding in and relaxed a little.

"I woke up around three this morning and his bed was empty. I checked out in the hall and I couldn't find him anywhere, but I still had the keys to the Impala," Dean told me. "If he didn't take the car I figured he hadn't ran off on his own but…it's just strange."

"Yeah, strange," I said in an echo, forcing a look of intrigue on my face. "Did you ask him about it this morning?"

"Yeah," Dean said, scratching the back of his neck. "He said he had been wandering the hallways for a bit because he couldn't sleep. But I'd have seen him if he was."

My stomach involuntarily dropped. So apparently we were both keeping last night a secret, and for some reason that bothered me. Though, if he would have told his brother, no doubt Dean would say something. And then Charlie wouldn't be able to keep quiet with her 'I told you so' comments for the next five hours.

"Maybe you guys somehow just missed each other," I suggested.

"Yeah," Dean responded in a tone that sounded like he didn't believe that at all. "Maybe."

"Breakfast?"

I jumped at the sound of Charlie's voice behind me. The conversation between Dean and I had made me forget she was in the other room entirely.

She didn't hesitate before digging into the bag of food and pulling things out, quickly unwrapping food and taking big bites. Dean briefly smiled at her enthusiasm before that concerned expression was back on his face.

"What's wrong with you?" Charlie asked between mouthfuls of food.

"Just worried about Sam," Dean said in short.

Charlie nodded her head, already aware of how much Dean had been worrying about his brother for awhile. "Where is he, by the way?" she asked as she practically chugged her coffee.

"Offered to finish packing up," Dean said, pointing with his thumb to where their room next door was. "He's keeping an eye on Cas, too."

"Cool." She took a bite of hash brown and then asked, "When are we leaving?"

Dean chuckled. "We're just waiting on you two, but it looks like you're demolishing breakfast in record time."

"I'm going to finish packing up then," I said standing up.

"I should probably go check on Sam and make sure he hasn't lost Cas," Dean said as he too stood up. "Meet you two in the lobby in ten minutes?"

"Sounds like a plan," I told him as I began picking up a few personal items that were scattered around the room.

Charlie was finished eating in a few minutes and then she helped pack up her things. I tucked my phone into the pocket of my jeans and scanned the room one last time. When we were sure we had everything, we made our way out of the room and down the hallway. Sam, Dean and Castiel were just making it into the lobby moments before the both of us did.

I handed our room key over to Dean who began checking us out of the room. The man behind the counter kept giving Sam strange looks the entire time, something that wasn't going unnoticed by his brother. Just when Dean finished with all of the important business, the man spoke up.

"You look familiar," he said, eyeing Sam suspiciously.

Sam cleared his throat awkwardly and shot me a glance from across the room; the first time he had really acknowledged me since last night. His glance seemed to trigger the man's memory.

"Hey, wait a minute…" he said, his eyes narrowing.

"Well we should be going now," Sam said, practically pushing Dean and myself out of the lobby door.

"What was that all about?" Dean asked his brother curiously, glancing back through a window at the man still staring at Sam's retreating form.

"Nothing," Sam said simply, shooting his brother a smile.

Not wanting Charlie to start getting suspicious either, I began walking at a brisk pace to my car.

"He appears to have recognized you," I heard Castiel say in his monotone, point-out-the-obvious sort of way.

"What's up with Sam?" Charlie asked. She stopped and was leaning against my car eyeing him a few parking spaces over from where we were. "Looks like he's hiding something."

I shrugged, hoping she would drop the subject. She didn't though, and instead kept staring at the two brothers now having a silent conversation over the hood of the Impala.

"It's weird. I've never seen him like that," Charlie pointed out. "That guy must have caught him doing something he really doesn't want Dean to know about."

I caught her eye and felt my cheeks burn. "Well, whatever happened, I'd like to not delay this five hour drive any longer."

At the mention of a five hour drive Charlie's face fell dramatically and all thoughts of whatever Sam had been up to disappeared.

"Five hours?" she asked in disbelief. "What am I supposed to do in this car for another five hours?"

A sudden chill crept its way up my spine. Glancing around the parking lot, I felt as if someone was watching us. The thought of Crowley appearing out of nowhere last night popped into my head and goosebumps rose on my arm. I couldn't see anyone lurking in the shadows, but the uneasy feeling was still present.

"Hey, guys, can we get a move on or do we have to wait around all day for you to continue bickering like an old married couple?" I shot at them.

The two stopped their conversation, which had switched from silent to verbal again, and glanced at me. Dean was glaring at me but Sam had another expression on his face that I couldn't make out. Without hesitation, Sam opened the passenger door and got into the car joining Castiel who had already been sitting in the backseat.

"Call us if you need anything," Dean grunted out, apparently in a sour mood now.

I hopped into the driver's seat and saw Charlie trying to get comfortable in her chair.

"This seat is going to morph to my ass pretty soon," she said seriously.

I grinned before throwing my car in reverse and backing up out of the parking spot. Following the Impala out onto the main road, I shot one last glance back at the shady motel through my rearview mirror, another chill running up my spine.


	9. Chapter 9

**Once again thanks for all the reviews and story favorites/follows! I'm in a hurry updating this but I wanted to post the next chapter already, so here it is! **

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"This is it? This is their super secret hideout?"

I parked behind the Impala and turned my attention to where Charlie was looking. All I could see was a cement bunker that looked like it was cut out in the side of a hill. It looked small and incredibly unimpressive.

"I was expecting something more…extravagant," Charlie admitted as she unbuckled her seatbelt. Under her breath I thought I caught her saying that this little bunker hadn't been worth that long of a drive. She wasted no time getting out of my Camry and stretching her legs outside, still eyeing up the little concrete entrance.

I turned the car off and began unbuckling my seatbelt when I suddenly felt a presence in the backseat. Whipping my head around, I stiffened at the sight of Crowley sitting there with his hands comfortably clasped in his lap.

"We should speak alone," he said in his smooth voice. With a wave of one of his hands the automatic locks on my car clicked, sealing me inside with him. "Don't worry, love," he crooned when he saw the panicked look on my face, "I need you alive."

"What do you want?" I demanded, though even I caught the tremor in my voice.

"Abaddon seems to be raising quite an army," Crowley told me. He glanced outside the window beside him. I followed his gaze to see Sam and Dean no longer fighting like they had been this morning; instead, they were smiling and laughing with Charlie while Castiel gazed at the bunker in front of him. "I have been forced into hiding," he said after a moment, turning his face back to me. "I don't like hiding," he added on, his voice low and dangerous. "She needs to be stopped, and soon. Every day she's killing off my loyal followers. And, from what I've been hearing, she's getting closer to releasing the big guy from his box."

"And now you need me?" I supplied for him.

He shook his head briefly. "Not quite yet, but I do know how tricky those Winchesters like to be so I wanted to speak with you in private."

My eyes narrowed at him instinctively. So he was aware we weren't really going to help him, or at least he really did know the brothers well enough to know they would find a way around helping him.

"What do you want?" I asked him again. This time my voice remaining steady as I spoke.

"You help me and I'll help you," he said with a smug smile. "Dean's one weakness is his brother, and I so happen to know that he's sick."

"You expect me to believe you know how to cure him?" I asked in disbelief. "I knew demons were liars, but I thought you were at least _good_ liars."

The smug smile never left his lips. "I don't know how to cure him exactly, but I do know where you could begin looking for that answer."

"You're lying," I said immediately.

"Yes, yes," he replied lazily with a wave of his hand. "How could I ever want to save a Winchester when one is on the brink of death? Sounds a little too out of character for me, I know. But I care more about my place as the King of Hell than I do about saving a Winchester." His eyes darted out the window beside him again as Dean suddenly spotted him in my car. He glanced back to me, his voice sounding a bit more hurried. "So what do you say, love? Do we have a deal?"

I stared at his now outstretched hand between us. Sudden pounding on the window beside me caused me to jump. Dean and Sam were both there banging their fists against the glass and occasionally trying to open the car door despite it being locked. They were shouting at me to unlock it in a fury.

"Don't you dare make a deal with him!" Dean's muffled voice demanded through the glass between us.

"How do I know you really have information to help Sam?" I asked him skeptically while trying to ignore the constant banging and shouting.

"I'm not a used car salesman, Costella," Crowley said silkily, causing me to flinch at his use of my last name. "I do have some integrity."

"So basically I have to trust _your_ word?" I asked incredulously.

"You'll find," Crowley said, "that I can be quite fair in serious matters such as these."

I chewed my lip as I thought it out in my head, ignoring the noise as both brothers continued shouting in futile outside my car. Crowley didn't even glance in their direction.

"So let me get this straight; you'll point us in the direction to find a cure for Sam, and all I have to do is kill Abaddon?"

"Precisely," Crowley confirmed. His hand crossed the gap between us again. "Do we have a deal?"

The banging on my car intensified as I hesitantly reached my hand out to shake his briefly.

"I'll be calling on you soon," Crowley said shortly before disappearing from my backseat.

The locks on my car clicked once more and Dean nearly ripped the door off its hinges.

"What did you just do?" he shouted at me, his face contorted in a mixture of fury and concern. "What idiotic deal did you just make with him?!"

"It wasn't idiotic!" I shot defensively.

Dean glared at me in return before running a hand over his face. "What did you do?" he asked me again, his voice deathly serious now.

"I made a deal to help him, and in return he is going to help us."

Dean's nostrils flared, fury written all over his face as he shook his head at me. Sam's expression changed to one of disbelief and something that almost looked like a cross between pity and fear.

"What did you agree to help him do?" Dean asked in a frighteningly soft tone.

"He just wants me to kill Abaddon, and—"

"Abaddon can't be killed," Sam cut in. "You just agreed to get yourself killed for him."

"He claims he has information to help us," I said boldly.

"Of course he did," Dean shot venomously, "demons lie. That's what they do."

"What did he say he could help us with?" Sam asked me curiously.

I paused before I answered, taking in the sight of him. His skin was still a sickly pale and the bags under his eyes looked darker than I had remembered them being the night before. He looked tired and weak despite his height and muscular build. I remembered how I had found him unconscious in the alley outside of a bar, not even able to fight off a single demon.

"He said he knows where we should look to find a cure," I said slowly. "For Sam."

Dean's expression went through a mixture of different emotions. Sam became entirely silent beside his brother, shifting his weight uncomfortably to his other foot and refusing to meet my eyes with his.

"You don't know that he isn't lying," Dean said softly. The anger that had been in his voice just seconds before was no longer present.

"No, but it's the only thing we've got to go on," I admitted.

Sam cleared his throat and caught Dean and mine's attention. "I don't want you getting yourself killed for this."

"I'm not a child, Sam. I can make decisions for myself," I shot at him.

"This isn't about that," Sam said roughly. "I'm sick and probably going to die, I've come to terms with that. I don't need you, or anyone else," he said shooting Dean a look, "throwing their own lives away for my sake. I didn't ask you to and I don't want you to."

"I'm a hunter, Sam. Born and raised one just like you and your brother," I said fiercely. "It's my job to put others before myself. If I can kill Abaddon and keep Lucifer trapped while possibly finding a cure for you in the process, then I say that sounds like a really good deal."

"I don't want your death on my conscious," Sam retorted.

"Good," I said, "Neither do I. So don't put it there if I do die. This is my choice, and if I'm the only one who can do it, then I don't see another option here."

"You're being ridiculous," Sam told me.

"I'm being realistic," I shot back.

I held his severe gaze, our eyes both locked onto each others'. I could see the muscles of his jaw clenching and unclenching out of the corner of my eye.

When he finally looked away, he said, barely audible, "I'm going for a walk." And then he disappeared down the way we had drove in, his tall frame blending in amongst the trees.

"Let's just get inside," Dean said after a moment.

I followed after him in silence, catching sight of Charlie and Castiel leaning awkwardly against the Impala. No one said a word.


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks again for the reviews WhiteEvil, Miss Tie, SomebodyWhoCares, and Sophie! I love reading reviews; knowing people are reading keeps me motivated to write up some more chapters. Now, without further adieu, here is chapter 10!**

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Flipping another page in the journal, I continued examining the contents written in the minute handwriting. It was an old journal; that much was easy to tell by the decaying pages. Half the entries were written with Latin passages which almost looked like they were spells. Occasionally I would stumble on a picture of something, usually drawn on the page like a sketch.

"I don't even know what I'm looking at anymore," Charlie mused to herself.

I glanced down the length of the wooden table that I figured had been where the Men of Letters had their meetings. Charlie was nose deep in a book but her right hand was raking continuously through her red hair.

"I understand encryption codes not dead languages," she mumbled.

I chuckled to myself which Charlie ignored as she continued to stare at the page in front of her. The smile fell from my lips the moment Sam's tall form entered the room though. It had been a few days since we had arrived and the brothers and I had argued about my deal with Crowley. Sam hadn't spoken to me since. He barely even looked in my direction whenever he entered the same room as me, just as he was doing now. My eyes continued to follow him despite that. I watched as he dropped a cardboard box onto the table beside Charlie—quite a ways from where I was sitting. I felt my stomach churn at the way he was giving me the cold shoulder.

Sam gingerly pulled the lid from the box and set it aside before gently pulling out a few notebooks and journals from within. Pulling the chair in front of him out, he slid into the seat without a word. His eyes began scanning the pages as a few strands of his hair fell into his face.

Charlie glanced over to Sam and gave a jump. Apparently she had been so intent on understanding the page in front of her, and Sam had entered the room so noiselessly, that she hadn't even realized he'd sat by her. She looked across the table to me and shot me an apologetic look. It wasn't much of a secret that Sam was upset with me.

With a sigh I fixed my attention back onto the journal in front of me and continued searching the pages for any mention about the Word of God tablets. I couldn't keep my mind from wandering back to Sam though. I would skim a few pages, find nothing, and see him flip a page out of the corner of my eye. The movement always caught my attention. Not once did he even acknowledge my existence as he sat just feet away from me. It was like that night in the motel earlier this week had never happened.

A sound down the hallway outside of the room caught the attention of all of us. Moments later Dean and Castiel were entering the room carrying plastic bags from Dean's food run. Castiel stiffly placed the bags of food onto the wooden table while Dean practically dropped them down and began digging into one and pulling out a bag of Doritos. He tore them open and plopped down into the chair opposite of Castiel before tossing chips into his mouth. He kicked his feet up onto the edge of the table and made himself comfortable; the contrast of Castiel's rigid posture across from him made the scene amusing.

"Find anything?" Dean asked between tossing chips into his mouth.

"Not yet," Sam's deep voice replied automatically, his eyes not even looking up from the journal in front of him.

Charlie shut the notebook she had been staring at for the last forty-five minutes and pushed it aside before pulling one of the plastic bags over to herself and digging into it. She smiled wickedly when she pulled out a package of Oreos and began tearing into them.

"Did you buy anything actually edible?" I asked Dean jokingly.

"The plumbing here might be wonderful but the kitchen isn't exactly top-of-the-line you know," Dean replied. He reached into the bag nearest him and began pulling out what looked like pre-made deli sub-sandwiches and began sliding them across to each of us. "Eat it," he said when he caught Castiel's eye.

I tore into my sandwich immediately, pushing the journal away from me a safe distance so I wouldn't ruin it somehow. Taking a bite, I glanced over and saw Sam still fixated on the journal in front of him. I chewed and forced myself to look away.

"Aren't you hungry, Sam?" Dean asked his brother, a look of concern on his face.

I glanced back at him. Between the strands of his long hair framing his face I saw his brows furrow in concentration. His eyes were darting across the page and back again as he read the words zealously.

"What is it?" Dean asked immediately.

He got up, his sandwich forgotten on the table now, and crossed over to his brother. Leaning over his shoulder to get a better view, Dean began reading just as fervently. After a minute the two exchanged looks with each other as if they were having yet another silent conversation. I was becoming used to these silent exchanges. Slowly, both of them turned their attention to me.

"What?" I asked nervously. I felt uncomfortable with how they were staring, especially since Sam hadn't looked at me in days.

Dean slid the journal towards me across the table. "Does this look familiar to you?" he asked me.

I pulled the book to me and saw a sketch immediately on the page with a lot of miniature writing beside it. The sketch was of a knife, or more correctly, a dagger. The blade was slightly curved and the handle was covered in intricate symbols. Along the blade itself there were symbols etched into the metal.

I felt as if someone had just punched me in the gut. Slowly, I reached into the holster around my calf and slid the dagger out of its place. Gently I laid it on the table beside the image. They were identical.

"This is insane," I breathed out, staring between the sketch and the real thing beside it.

"I thought it looked familiar," Sam said suddenly.

I looked up as he spoke and our eyes met. For once he actually looked at me.

"What do you know about that thing?" Dean asked, nodding his head towards the dagger on the table.

Charlie leaned in curiously, still taking bites out of her sandwich with wide eyes. Castiel leaned forward too, his tie falling into the pile of Cheetos on the napkin in front of him.

"Not much," I answered Dean. "My grandfather gave it to me. I know it's a family heirloom, but that's all he told me."

"You said, that night we first met, that he told you it could kill any demon?" Dean asked.

I nodded mutely and looked down at the journal in front of me. The handwriting next to the sketch was bunched together and hard to read.

"What's so great about it?" Charlie asked curiously.

"It's one of those lore objects hunters hear about," Sam explained to Charlie. "Supposed to be a myth."

"Like Samuel Colt's gun," I breathed out when realization finally hit me.

"Exactly," Sam said. "I've heard of that thing before. Bobby mentioned it to me a few times. That journal calls it the Witchblade, but Bobby called it Letum Mucro, which roughly translates to—"

"Deathblade," I finished for him.

"Right," he said, looking surprised.

There was a silence that engulfed the room where Sam and I continued staring at each other from across the table. Charlie broke the silence after a moment as she cleared her throat uncomfortably.

"I still don't get it," she admitted awkwardly. "What's so great about it?"

"The dagger itself has some sort of…magic or something on it, like with Colt's gun. It can kill anything," Sam explained for everyone. "But it only works for someone in your bloodline. The moment your family dies out, it's just a dagger."

"That explains the family heirloom part," I joked, still staring in awe at the dagger.

"This is why Crowley wants you," Sam said firmly as he tried to catch my eye. "This dagger can kill Abaddon, but it won't work for anyone else."

I stared at the metal blade glinting in the room light. I had always thought it was just an interesting dagger my grandfather had gotten from his father, but now after learning about what it really was? I felt like I couldn't touch it.

"I can't believe that I've been carrying around something this powerful for years," I said, my eyes still locked on the glinting blade, "and I was using silver bullets on shifters and beheading vampires when I could have just used that."

Dean let out an awkward chuckle; everyone's eyes seemed to be staring at the little dagger on the table that was more than it appeared to be.


	11. Chapter 11

**I appreciate all the attention and feedback this story has gotten since I first put it up! I really appreciate the reviews I've been getting, especially from Miss Tie and WhiteEvil that I just read earlier. They were the reason I tried to push out a new update today when I really wasn't feeling up to it. Yesterday early in the morning when I was heading home I had gotten into an accident (because deer apparently jump into oncoming traffic). Obviously I'm okay, but I'm dealing with all of that right now which isn't fun and is really stressful. Anyway, I'll try to update again soon, but if not, that's why.**

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Sheathing the dagger back in the holster under my jeans, I noticed the atmosphere in the room was reaching normalcy again. Sam kept staring at me from across the table when he thought I wasn't looking, but he had finally turned his attention to the sandwich in front of him and had begun to eat. Dean was inhaling his food back on the other end of the table and finished it well before the rest of us. I watched as he stood up and made his way across the main room to what we had begun calling the archives. It was an interesting room filled with shelves and shelves of boxes and books and journals. The first time I had stepped into the room I had thought of Bobby and what he might have said if he could have been here.

Our 'dinner' passed with the usual conversations, and no one else mentioned the dagger that I was all too aware of now pressed against my leg. It was hard not to notice the weight of it on my calf now that I knew it was something special. Even when I had continued to scan through the last pages of the journal I had been reading through before, my mind kept shifting back to what Sam had told us. I wondered if my grandfather had ever known what this blade was capable of doing or if he'd thought of it just like I always had.

I noticed Sam shifting in his chair out of the corner of my eye. I glanced up and his eyes met mine the moment I did. I meant to look away but he gave me a look like he was about to say something, though he stared at me a moment before he did.

"Can I talk to you?" he asked finally, his head motioning towards the hallway outside of the main room.

His question took me by surprise. An hour ago he had just been ignoring me, and now he wanted to talk to me alone?

"Yeah," I said hesitantly, unsure of what he was going to say.

He stood up, pausing after he did and placing a hand against his forehead as if the movement had been too quick. I frowned at him, watching as he regained his composure.

Overall it wasn't the most obvious thing to know he was sick if you were just looking at him— unless you knew what to look for. Lately he had been complaining a lot about headaches and Dean was constantly trying to buy different medications to help him whenever he ran out on food runs. Eventually, Sam had said some over-the-counter migraine pills worked, but I had always had the sinking feeling that he was lying.

Charlie caught my eye as I followed out after Sam and I quickly glanced away, fighting any color rising to my cheeks as I remembered the kiss all too clearly from a few days prior. I forcefully reminded myself that he just wanted to talk, nothing more.

Sam walked a little ways down from the room we had just come from; probably hoping no one would overhear our conversation. He leaned up against the wall when he finally stopped and I positioned myself on the wall across from him. I couldn't help but realize that this hallway wasn't a very big one.

"You aren't still planning on keeping your deal with Crowley now, right?" he asked in a rush.

Shocked at his sudden jump into the matter, I gaped at him for a moment. Recovering, I answered with a simple, "Yes".

"Why? We know what his plan is now, we can do this on our own," Sam reasoned.

"If we do it on our own he isn't going to help us," I reminded him.

Sam shook his head, a few strands of his hair falling into his face. He pushed them back and gave me a firm look. "You can't seriously think that trusting him is a wise decision."

I felt anger flare up in my gut but I closed my eyes for a second to fight it down. "If he has a way to help you," I told him, forcing to keep calm, "then I'm doing it. I've already went over this with Dean."

"You're both being ridiculous," Sam stated.

My eyes narrowed at him as I remembered something Charlie had told me and something Sam had said a few days ago. Putting the two together gave me a clearer picture of what was really going on.

"You're the one being ridiculous," I said with a newfound realization.

"What are you talking about?" he asked dismissively. "I'm the one being reasonable here; I'm being logical."

"No," I said, shaking my head. "You said it yourself the other day, you've come to terms with the fact that you're going to die. You plan on finishing the trials before your sickness can finish you."

He stared at me, his mouth slightly opening and closing as if he had something to say but didn't know what.

"I'm right," I continued on. "You think there isn't a way to save you, you're just humoring your brother." When he still stood there silently I added on, "You've been planning this the whole time."

Just like that, his face betrayed him. His eyes dropped to his shoes and he looked guilty as ever.

"You're right," he said, his voice barely audible.

"But _why_?"

"Because there isn't a way to cure me, all the angels said it themselves. There's something in me and if they don't even know what it is, how is there any hope that we're going to find a cure here, digging through these old journals, or anywhere else?" Sam said in a rush, a pained look on his face. "I didn't finish the trials because I couldn't, not with the things Dean was saying, not with him standing right there about to watch me die. But the more time that passes the more I realize there isn't another option."

I could feel tears stinging behind my eyes and I fought them back.

"I don't want to die," he admitted in a softer tone, his eyes meeting mine. "I just don't see what other choice I have."

"Then let me do this," I pleaded. "Let me kill Abaddon. Let's see what information Crowley gives us and if it can help. But Sam," I said, nearly begging now, "don't give up already."

I felt a tear sneak out of my eye and begin falling down my face. I reached to wipe it away but Sam's hand was already at my face, his thumb catching the tear. His hand lingered a moment longer than necessary, something the both of us seemed to notice, before he finally pulled it back. A slight smile was on his face now.

"You know," he said, his tone soft and teasing, "You remind me a lot of my brother sometimes. You're both really stubborn."

I let out a very unladylike snort of laughter at what he said, his smile only growing more.

"I have a hard time saying no to him," Sam continued on, his voice still teasing. "Apparently I have a hard time saying no to you, too."

Our eyes held each others' for a time while both of us just smiled at the other. Something was going on in that moment, that much I was aware of. Slowly I saw him reach out his hand to grab mine.

"What was that, the other night?" I asked him before I could stop myself.

"In the pool?" Sam asked.

I nodded and felt a little breathless as he pushed off the wall and took a step closer to me, his eyes still locked onto mine.

"There's just something about you that I'm drawn to," he admitted.

"Maybe Charlie has a point," I said trying to be funny.

Sam rolled his eyes, a huge grin now plastered on his face. "She told you didn't she?"

Slapping a hand to my forehead, I realized Sam had no clue that I had been told about Charlie's theory about Chuck's manuscripts.

"Yeah, she did," I admitted, peaking out behind the hand on my forehead at him. "Oops?"

Sam laughed and shook his head. "I figured it would come out eventually with all the time you two were stuck together."

"If it makes you feel better," I told him as he grabbed both of my hands now, "I didn't believe her at all either."

"Maybe there's a bit more to Chuck's predictions than we thought," Sam confessed. "I'm not going to admit that to her though if you tell her I said that."

A serious look crossed his face a moment later and I felt him tighten his hold on my hands.

"What?" I asked him curiously.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to be getting this close to me, everything considered?" Sam asked seriously.

"Sam," I said gravely, "None of us are going to let you die. We're going to find a cure for you. After everything Bobby has told me you two have gone through, there's no way we can't find a way out of this." I squeezed his hands reassuringly. "There's nothing the Winchesters can't do."

He shot me a half-smile and pulled me to him into a tight embrace. I buried my face into his chest, taking in his scent and feeling the strong muscles beneath his shirt. I felt safe in his arms, something I hadn't ever let myself feel before.

"We should probably get back in there," Sam whispered, his lips brushing my ear and causing a shiver to run up my spine.

"Yeah," I agreed after a moment.

Reluctantly we pulled away from each other and I followed Sam back down the hallway to the main room where everyone was situated around the giant table. Everyone was buried in some sort of a book when we entered the room; Dean had his feet propped back up on the table again.

I made my way back to where I had been sitting before as I felt everyone's eyes suddenly on us. I flipped open to the page I had just been on, but out of the corner of my eye I saw Sam sit a few chairs closer to me. I glanced up and he shot me a grin before turning back to the books scattered in front of him now.

Charlie raised her eyebrows at me and her eyes began darting between the two of us like she was watching a tennis match. Feeling a blush rise to my cheeks, I quickly snapped my attention to the book in front of me, trying to ignore Sam shooting me glances across the table every few minutes.


	12. Chapter 12

**It's been months since I last updated, I know. A lot has been going on since this summer and I barely have time for sleep anymore. I've been getting notifications from people wanting me to update and believe me I want to, but I don't always have the time. I did tonight though! Unfortunately I don't know how soon I'll be able to update again. It's my last year of college, I've got midterms this week, and I'm already in a fiction class where I write stories and read them on a weekly basis (not to mention I run a photography business 24/7). I'll try to update soon though!**

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My eyes were worn out from spending all day staring at journals and constantly reading the small print that was more often than not in Latin. The moment Charlie stumbled on a page in Latin she would throw her hands up in defeat and pass the book along to Sam or myself.

"Another pointless day wasted skimming through another pointless one of these," Charlie grumbled as she closed the journal in front of her. "Too bad these weren't all archived on a computer database. This would take fractions of the time to sort through."

Sam glanced up from the page he was on and gave her a sympathetic smile. "Unfortunately computers didn't exist at the time these were written," he told her.

"Thank you Captain Obvious," Charlie replied with a huff. She glanced down at her phone beside her and gave a jolt of surprise. "It's almost one in the morning!"

The moment she mentioned the time I suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion hit me. I had been so absorbed in my research that I hadn't been aware of how late it had gotten. I stifled a yawn before closing the journal in front of me and leaning back in my chair, my eyes closing momentarily.

"Tired?" Sam asked from beside me.

Opening my eyes lazily, I saw Sam looking at me with an amused grin on his face. I nodded slowly in response.

"Exhausted," I told him.

Charlie got up from her chair and put the book beside her back into a box on the wooden table.

"I'm going to get ready for bed," she announced to us.

"That sounds like a good idea," I called after her.

I sat upright, stretching my back and arm muscles as I did so. Sam began gathering a few stray books before gently packing them into the box Charlie had previously deposited her book inside. I hadn't realized I was staring until he let out a chuckle.

"You should really get some sleep," Sam told me as he placed the lid of the box in place.

"So should you," I said with a groggy voice. "How's your headache?"

"It's gone, those migraine pills help a lot."

I nodded, not entirely believing him though, as I got up and stifled yet another yawn.

"It's becoming real depressing being cooped up in here," I told Sam as we made our way out of the room. "There aren't even any windows."

"It's a little gloomy," he admitted, "but at least it's safe." He shrugged his large shoulders before adding on, "And at least you aren't alone here."

"Now that would be spooky," I said with a laugh.

Sam shot me a smile, his hand brushing against mine every now and then as we walked down the hallway towards the sleeping quarters. When we stopped in front of the room I was occupying with Charlie, he pulled me in for a hug that took me by surprise at first. Recovering from the shock, I drew my arms around his waist and enjoyed the warm embrace before he pulled away.

"Goodnight," he said, his voice suddenly quieter.

"Goodnight," I whispered back, all the while wishing I had the courage to just pull him in for a kiss. Instead I watched him continue on a few rooms over to where he was sleeping and disappear inside.

Charlie popped her head out of the door behind me causing me to jump in surprise. I threw a hand to my chest and took a deep breath.

"Sorry," she apologized, "I thought I heard you out there."

"I was just talking to Sam," I told her, entering into the room as she held the door open wider.

A smile lit up her face, which now looked significantly less tired.

"Talking about what?" she asked curiously.

"Nothing special, really," I told her honestly.

The excitement on her face fell immediately. "We still making the food run in the morning? I'm desperate to get out of this bunker. It all feels so post-apocalyptic."

"Technically, we are post-apocalypse," I informed her. "But yes, we are. I haven't seen sunlight in four days."

"I forgot there even was a sun," Charlie mumbled sarcastically before she pulled back the sheets on her bed and crawled in.

* * *

The alarm on my phone woke me up promptly at 7:30. I could still feel the exhaustion from this week's intense research making my brain feel foggy as I washed up and got ready for the day. By the time I finished, Charlie was sitting on the end of her bed playing a game on her phone.

"Must be nice having an escape from reality," I commented.

She glanced up from her phone and smiled. "Yeah, at least these games make all of this feel a little bit normal."

"Ready to go?" I asked her, grabbing my car keys off of the nightstand by my bed.

She immediately shot up from off the bed, stuffing her phone into her jean's pocket. "I was ready to go twenty minutes ago!"

I followed her out of our door and along the winding hallway, patting my jacket pocket to make sure my dagger was with me. We passed the main room where we had spent the last week trying to find any clue as to how to cure Sam or save the angels and saw all three men sitting around the table. Dean and Sam were both intently pouring over a few books while Castiel appeared to have a hard time staying focused.

"We're heading off to the store, you guys need anything?" I called in to them.

"Just the usual," Dean called back absentmindedly, his attention still focused on the page open in front of him.

Sam let out a deep cough which made me hesitate mid-step and glance back at him. He was rubbing his head as if he had a headache again. Worry began to creep its way back into my stomach as I followed Charlie's retreating form down the rest of the hallway.

"Fresh air!" she exclaimed once we had finally made it outside.

I closed my eyes briefly and took a deep breath, savoring the slight floral scent in the air and the warmth of sunlight on my face.

"I don't think I've ever been away from sunlight for so long," I admitted.

"I have a few times," Charlie told me as she opened the door to my car. "Sometimes I'd have a few days off of work and a brand new video game."

I rolled my eyes at her and climbed into my car. "You and your games," I mumbled.

The drive to the store was a little longer than I had anticipated, but then I had to remind myself that the bunker was in the middle of nowhere.

"No wonder why Dean's food runs always took so long," Charlie said when we had finally pulled into the parking lot.

"At least it wasn't another five hour drive," I teased her.

"I hope we aren't doing another one of those trips any time soon," she groaned. "The only thing worse than being trapped in that bunker is being trapped in a car."

I noticed when we entered that the grocery store wasn't very big. There were twelve aisles, each labeled clearly with what was contained in each one, and three small check out lanes. Currently only one was open, a young girl about eighteen stood behind the register with a very bored expression on her face. She was chipping black nail polish off of her fingernails as we walked by her. She didn't even glance up at us.

After a half hour we had managed to grab a few different things to hold us over for a couple more days. I pushed our cart over to the girl at the check out aisle.

"Good morning," she said half-heartedly.

"I don't know what she's grumpy about," Charlie whispered to me as we began placing items on the conveyor belt. "She didn't just spend the last week stuck underground."

I stifled a laugh which caused the young girl to narrow her eyes distrustfully at the two of us. By the time she had finished ringing us out she must have been glad to see us leave. Charlie had constantly leaned over and whispered jokes at the young girl's expense while she had been scanning the items we were buying. I'm sure by the look she had been giving us she had caught on to what was going on.

Charlie grabbed the cart full of grocery items and pushed it out to my car. I popped the trunk with the button on my keychain and helped her put everything inside.

"There, that's everything," Charlie said satisfied once we had put the last bag in.

"You've been very hard to find lately, love," a voice behind us crooned.

Both Charlie and I spun around in shock at the unexpected voice. Crowley stood a few feet behind us, a strained smile on his face as he stared at me.

"We had a deal you know, or did you go back on it?"

"You never specified a date and time," I told him.

"I didn't expect you to go into hiding," Crowley sneered.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "So what do you want?"

"That favor I asked of you—I need you to kill Abaddon. Now."

He was reaching out and clutching my arm into his hand in seconds before I had any idea of what he was doing. Charlie stood in a panic, not sure what to do.

"What are you doing?" I asked him in alarm.

"Taking you with me."

A strange feeling washed over me and I suddenly realized I was no longer in the small parking lot of the grocery store with Charlie. I was alone with Crowley somewhere entirely different.

"You want help curing Sam, you kill Abaddon for me. That's the deal," Crowley said smoothly.


End file.
